Trumps well-received at hospital, Portman says

As President Donald Trump worked his way through a Dayton hospital Wednesday, the mood was largely positive, with the focus on comforting the 14 victims there from last weekend’s mass shooting and thanking first responders, not hammering out legislative solutions, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said.

Trump met with the six officers who responded to the gunshots in the Oregon District and the trauma team that treated patients, commending them for “their remarkable response.”

“It was a textbook example of how you would hope a horrible tragedy could be addressed by law enforcement,” Portman said. “It was a terrible night, but it could have been so much worse had they not responded quickly.”

And the president gathered with friends of those who were killed or who saw people next to them shot and killed.

Portman joined Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Mike Turner and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley in accompanying the president and first lady Melania Trump on the tour of Miami Valley Hospital.

“It was very emotional because a lot of these victims are still in tough shape,” Portman said. Trump was “well-received,” he said, and the injured “talked about what happened that night and talked about their injuries.”

Trump offered his prayers for a quick recovery. Melania Trump “was very sensitive and compassionate,” Portman said.

The Trumps posed for photos with members of the hospital staff, and the president met with about 20 people who were in the Oregon District that fateful night.

Portman said he had visited the hospital Monday and was relieved Wednesday to see all of the patients showing improvement. One man is now sitting up, his eyes brighter. A woman, shot in the head, has had her bandages removed. Portman called their recovery “heartening.”

He said while the lawmakers discussed solutions to gun violence among themselves, “that wasn’t the focus of the visit.”

“The focus was to offer encouragement and to thank the people who were so effective at saving lives,” he said. “We met people today who literally fell on top of their friends or family members to protect them.”

Still, the group discussed Dewine’s proposals to lessen gun violence, and Portman reiterated his support for “red-flag” laws that would allow police to remove guns from those deemed potentially harmful to themselves or others.

“The president agreed to continue to work with us,” he said. “We didn’t come up with any answers, but there was a spirit of figuring out what works, and trying to figure out something fast.”