Video shows Trump in El Paso comparing his, O’Rourke’s crowds
A video that surfaced of President Donald Trump’s visit Wednesday to an El Paso, Texas, hospital in the wake of a mass shooting that killed 22 people shows him talking to medical staff about the crowd sizes that he and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke drew at political rallies earlier in the year.
As Mr. Trump exchanges pleasantries with doctors and others at the University Medical Center of El Paso, the video shows him pausing to reminisce about dueling rallies that he and the Texas Democrat staged in El Paso in February focused on immigration and border security.
“That was some crowd,” Mr. Trump says of his event. “We had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, and they said his crowd was wonderful.”
The video shows no one responding to Mr. Trump’s assertion before convening for group photos.
Reporters traveling with Mr. Trump during his visits Wednesday to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso were not permitted to witness his visits with hospital staff, first responders and others impacted by the shootings. While the media was kept at bay, Mr. Trump later tweeted two video montages documenting the visits.
The video showing part of his visit to the University Medical Center of El Paso was posted on Twitter late Wednesday by KDBC- TV, a local CBS- affiliated television station. The station has been soliciting videos shot by viewers who were present for Mr. Trump’s visit.
Mr. Trump expressed frustration to aides on Air Force One that news cameras were not with him in the hospital on Wednesday and that coverage of the trip was being dominated by his foes.
He wanted pictures and video released immediately, according to people with knowledge of what happened, and asked aides to go defend him. Mr. Trump has complained to allies since the shootings that he had not gotten enough credit for his response, according to these people, who requested anonymity to share private conversations.
Inside the White House, the trip was generally seen as “not ideal” in the words of one senior administration official.
While the president’s aides explained to reporters that cameras were kept out of the hospital due to logistical and privacy concerns, two White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were concerns that they could capture an impolitic moment or the president making an insensitive comment.
Though the president is said to have fumed about the coverage on the long flight back to Washington, he remained positive in public.
“We had an amazing day,” Mr. Trump said in the corridor of an emergency coordination center in El Paso. “As you know, we left Ohio. And the love and the respect for the office of the presidency, it was — I wish you could have been in there to see it. I wish you could have been in there.”
The two events staged by Mr. Trump and Mr. O’Rourke in February along the U. S.- Mexico border came as congressional negotiators labored to avoid a partial government shutdown and Mr. Trump sought more funding for construction of his longpromised border wall.
About a mile down the road from Mr. Trump’s rally, several thousand demonstrators gathered at a high school carrying American flags, rainbow banners, “Beto for President” flags, and flags for Mexico and Texas.
A piece in the El Paso Times on the night of the rallies said that Mr. Trump had overstated his crowd size.
During his remarks that night, Mr. Trump thanked the fire department for allowing 10,000 people in the El Paso County Coliseum, beyond its stated capacity, and said “tens of thousands” of additional people were watching on screens outside.
A fire department spokesman told the Times that 6,500 people were inside the venue and no special accommodations were made.