On Thursday, President Donald Trump told Republican congressmen at a retreat in Philadelphia that there is “nothing fair about the media.”
According to Politico, the president also said, “On Friday, a lot of people are gonna be showing up to Washington, right, Mike? A lot of people.” Vice President Mike Pence will host a March for Life welcome reception later Thursday and is apparently expected to speak at an annual March for Life rally on Friday, although he is not listed as a speaker on the organization website.
“You know, the press never gives them the credit that they deserve,” Trump continued. “They’ll have 300, 400, 500, 600,000 people. You won’t even read about it.”
The 44th annual March for Life will be held January 27 near Washington Monument and will feature a line up of speakers that includes KellyAnne Conway, billed as “the highest-ranking White House official to ever speak at the March”, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), Representative Mia Love (R-UT), Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Baltimore Ravens tight end Benjamin Watson, former Planned Parenthood Director Abby Johnson, Mexican Telenovela star Karyme Lozano, author and radio host Eric Metaxas, and Bishop Vincent Matthews of the Church of God in Christ.
According to WTOP, extra trains will be added to the Metrorail transit services. Regular rush hour service is scheduled for the morning and afternoon, with extra and longer trains added in the middle of the day. BusBank indicates on its website that charter buses are still available and that attendance is anticipated to be around 250,000 people.
In spite of Trump’s claims that the media ignore the event, The New York Times and The Washington Post covered the March for Life in 2016, reporting that a “small, faithful crowd” of “thousands” showed up in spite of an impending blizzard that sent many rally goers scurrying back to their buses. Organizers estimated that 40,000 people participated in 2016.
Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina gave a fiery speech at the 2016 event, and said of her political opponents, “You can throw condoms at me all day long.” Penny Nance, CEO of the anti-abortion group Concerned Women for America, said, “We need to look past that and see what is the person’s record. They’ll have to answer follow up questions. And Donald Trump is at the top of that list,” she said