PREZ SALUTES
1st responders, hosp crews ‘make you very proud to be an American’
President Trump on Wednesday visited Las Vegas to comfort victims of the worst mass murder in modern US history and pay tribute to the hospital staff, police officers and first responders who rushed to their aid.
“We met patients that were absolutely terribly wounded and the doctors, the nurses, all of the people of the hospital have done a job that’s indescribable,” the president said at the University Medical Center.
He said that many of the patients he and First Lady Melania Trump met were heroes who were wounded after they ran back to help victims escape from the barrage of the madman who was turning a country-music concert venue into a killing ground.
“Some were very, very badly wounded. And they were badly wounded because they refused to leave. They wanted to help others because they saw people going down all over. There’s tremendous bravery,” the president said.
“People leaving ambulances to have somebody else go because they thought they were hurt even more so,” he added, praising the professionalism of the doctors, nurses and hospital staffs.
“It makes you very proud to be an American when you see the job that they’ve done, and people that would not be around today are up there and they’ll be leaving the hospital in a week or two weeks or five weeks and in some cases even in a few days,” Trump said.
He lauded the police and other first responders for scrambling to help the wounded and locating the shooter as soon as they did.
“The Police Department, incredible. The fact that they were able to locate that zone and get in there, they say 11 minutes, whatever it was, they kept him busy and he stopped firing because he knew they were coming into that door at some point,” he said, referring to the shooter.
While people ran and ducked for cover in the chaos, he said, police officers stood straight up to help direct people to safety.
Asked what message he had for the hundreds of others who were wounded but who survived the attack, he replied, “The only message I can say is that we’re with you 100 percent.”
And he added that he invited the survivors to Washington to pay him a visit.
“I invited a lot of them over to the White House. I said if you’re ever in Washington, come on over to the Oval Office. And they’re all saying ‘ We want to do it, how do we do it?’ And believe me, I’ll be there for them,” he said.
Later, delivering prepared remarks at Vegas’ police headquarters, the president struck a somber tone and lauded the American spirit.
“The mass murder fills America’s heart with grief. America is truly a nation in mourning. 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 said.
“In the months ahead, we will all have to wrestle with the horror of what has unfolded this week. but we will struggle through it together. we will endure the pain together. and we will overcome together as Americans.”
He called Stephen Paddock, the 64-year-old Nevada man with an arsenal of weapons who opened fire from his hotel room, “a very sick man, a very demented person,” but would not address a possible motive.
And he again declined to respond to questions about tougher gun-control measures.
The atrocity left 58 people dead and at least 489 wounded or injured.