SOLEMN PRESIDENT: ‘ AMERICA TRULY A NATION IN MOURNING’
LAS VEGAS — Solemn in the face of tragedy, President Donald Trump visited hospital bedsides and a vital police base in stricken Las Vegas on Wednesday, offering prayers and condolences to the victims of Sunday night’s shooting massacre, along with the nation’s thanks to first responders and doctors who rushed to save lives.
“America is truly a nation in mourning,” the president declared, days after a gunman on the 32nd floor of a hotel and casino opened fire on the crowd at an outdoor country music festival below. The rampage killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500, many from gunfire, others from chaotic efforts to escape.
In Las Vegas, Trump spoke of the families who “tonight will go to bed in a world that is suddenly empty.”
“Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter,” he told them. “We know that your sorrow feels endless. We stand together to help you carry your pain.”
It was a somber address from a provocateur president who prides himself on com- manding strength but sometimes has struggled to project empathy at times of tragedy.
His solemn words in Las Vegas offered a sharp contrast to his trip a day earlier to hurricane- ravaged Puerto Rico, where he spoke of the “expensive” recovery effort on the island and highlighted the relatively low death toll there compared with “a real catastrophe like Katrina” in 2005.
On Wednesday, Trump took a grim tour of Las Vegas, meeting face- to- face with victims and first responders.
In prepared remarks, he spoke of the courage dis- played by those who risked or lost their lives saving loved ones and total strangers. He described an eyewitness account of police officers standing as bullets slammed around them and trying to direct concert- goers to safety.
He described a military veteran who had rushed to the scene in search of loved ones, but quickly turned to helping victims, using plastic barriers as gurneys for the injured and frantically searching for anything he could use to make splints.
“The example of those whose final act was to sacrifice themselves for those they love should inspire all of us to show more love every day for the people who grace our lives,” Trump said.