A Trump Cabinet official has raised eyebrows after he looked as though he tried to smack the rear end of a female lawmaker on stage at the GOP’s midterm convention.
The Trump-a-Palooza festival got off to an awkward start on Wednesday, with a mostly empty stadium, lackluster energy, and speakers trying desperately to gin up the crowd.
But things took an even more bizarre turn when Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner took to the stage to give a speech attacking the Biden administration’s policies.
After finishing his remarks, Turner began to walk off the stage as the next speaker, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, headed towards the podium for her turn.
But as Turner passed her, it looked as though the Trump ally extended his hand and moved it towards the MAGA congresswoman’s buttocks - sparking an immediate backlash online.
The move was first spotted by Acyn Torabi, a digital editor at the left-leaning political news network MeidasTouch, first spotted the move
It is not clear whether Turner made contact, and Luna did not flinch as they passed. But some pundits expressed disgust at the move, while others simply called it “bizarre.” One observer joked that Turner, a former NFL player, “forgot it’s not the strip club.”
“Did someone just smack her a--?” asked the popular news account PatriotTakes. “Who was that?”
The split-second interaction was one of the many scrutinized moments at the convention on Wednesday–a MAGA jamboree filled with donors, ambitious candidates, and political lobbyists.
Organizers had pulled out all the stops to pack the American Airlines Center in Dallas, including opening up a lottery for the public with the promise of VIP treatment, urging GOP operatives to give away passes to the two-day event, and blasting out unsolicited text messages screaming “FREE TICKETS” with links to the convention’s registration page.
But by the time the convention speeches began Wednesday afternoon, the 21,000-person stadium was still mostly empty, and the energy among some participants was lower than at other GOP gatherings.
One state official privately admitted that her delegation was about 10 people short, as they had struggled to find people who could attend. The Daily Beast also noticed a large number of “alternates” - a person appointed by the party to substitute for an absent delegate.
Entire sections for state delegations–such as Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts–were largely empty.
The convention was always going to be a gamble for the Republican National Committee, which had agreed to make Trump the center of the event, even though his approval ratings are at record lows.
“Everybody wants to be there,” Trump insisted on Truth Social on Tuesday night, despite several Republicans in competitive races opting to stay away.
By Wednesday, however, he had changed his tune, telling reporters before heading to Texas that not all Republican lawmakers were attending because there wasn’t enough room.
“The reason that some people are not coming is because we don’t have room for 500 politicians. We have room for the ones that have a close race, if they’re slightly behind or slightly ahead or tied,” Trump said on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. “But we don’t have rooms for people that are 35 points up and don’t need to be there. We said stay back and campaign. Every politician that we’ve wanted to be there is there,” he added.
