WHIO anchor travels with President Trump,
— WHIO-TV anchor DAYTON
Cheryl McHenry traveled with President Donald Trump on Wednesday as he visited first responders and shooting victims at Miami Valley Hospital.
McHenry watched the president and first lady Melania Trump come off of Air Force One around 11 a.m. and greet Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio’s first lady Fran DeWine, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, and others.
“It started early, there was a lot of waiting around,” McHenry said. She had to be at the base by 8:40 a.m.
As she rode in the 50-car motorcade, she said you could see people on the highway waving, some in support, some not. The president traveled along Interstate 675 and U.S. 35 on his way to the hospital.
“We didn’t get to have any photo-ops,” she said.
She said the most “impressive thing for me was when we were standing under the wing of Air Force One just 10 yards behind the line of dignitaries.”
The president was on the tarmac for only about 10 minutes, she said.
“We wondered if he was headed to the Oregon District,” she said. However the president was behind schedule on his way to El Paso, Texas, and if an Oregon District stop was ever in the cards, it was scrapped.
McHenry spent time with some in the national press. “They were surprised we were not able to get any photo op with the victims,” she said.
McHenry said she just got to see the president “coming and going.”
“We didn’t get close enough to talk to first responders, patients or anything.”
McHenry got an exclusive interview with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who said the president met with survivors and police officers who fired shots at the gunman to end Sunday’s mass shooting in the Oregon District.