According to a local journalist, “pockets” of the crowd attending Donald Trump’s rally at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion on Monday left the site as the former president delivered his address.

Footage posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Greg Bluestein, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitutionshowed a significant number of empty seats at the start of Trump’s speech in the 8,600-seat venue, with an entire top tier appearing nearly empty. Bluestein later released a lengthy video around the “hour mark” of Trump’s address that showed the number of attendees in some seating areas had continued to dwindle.

Georgia, which Trump won in 2016 but lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, is one of the key swing states that could end up determining the 2024 presidential election. Recent polls suggest the race remains very close. An analysis of recent polls published Monday by election website FiveThirtyEight gives Trump a 54 percent chance of victory, compared to 46 percent for Harris.

On Monday, about 40 minutes after Trump’s speech in Georgia, Bluestein shared an 11-second video from the arena that showed numerous empty seats. He wrote: “As Donald Trump’s speech continues, large portions of the crowd at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion begin to move away.”

About 20 minutes later, he shared a lengthy 22-second clip that showed the crowd noticeably thinning in certain parts of the stadium, commenting, “We’ve reached the hour or so of Trump’s speech.”

Newsweek contacted the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris via email outside of regular office hours on Tuesday for comment.

The empty seats at Trump’s rally drew ridicule on social media. Democratic Party social media activist Harry Sisson wrote: “YIKES! Trump’s rally in Georgia is practically EMPTY! The entire upper area is cordoned off and people have left the stands. None.” Good prospects a week before the election!”

Political commentator Peter Henlein, the 34,000 that, unlike MSG, is in a state that actually matters.”

However, Abigail Needham, a Trump supporter from Tennessee, shared a 50-second clip of the event on X and said: “I was at a Trump rally in Atlanta, Georgia tonight. It was great! So electrifying!”

In his speech, the Republican candidate called Harris a “low IQ person” and a “radical left-wing Marxist.” He said: “The United States is an occupied country, but soon it will no longer be an occupied country.”

Trump criticized critics who accused him of having fascist or Nazi sympathies, commenting: “They say, ‘He’s Hitler.'” They say, “He’s a Nazi.” I’m the opposite of a Nazi.

“How can Kamala Harris lead America if she hates Americans? … They are very bad people who are a threat to democracy.”

On October 22nd The Atlantic published an article by its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in which he claimed that Trump expressed admiration for the loyalty of Adolf Hitler’s generals, a claim that was confirmed by former Republican White House chief of staff John Kelly, according to the report . In conversation with NewsweekTrump campaign adviser Alex Pfeiffer said: “This is absolutely wrong. President Trump never said that.”

Earlier Monday, Trump spoke at the National Faith Advisory Board in Powder Springs, Georgia, where he said “religion is under threat in America.”

According to the University of Florida Elections Lab, as of Oct. 28, 3,050,666 people in Georgia had voted early, either in person or by absentee ballot. There are 16 electoral votes up for election in Georgia this year.

Trump held a massive rally at New York’s famed Madison Square Gardens on Sunday, where he spoke for more than an hour and repeated his claim that Federal Emergency Management Agency funds had been diverted to help illegal immigrants, a claim the agency disputed became.

During the event, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe caused a stir when he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” In a statement, Trump campaign adviser Danielle Alvarez said: “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”