August 08, 2019 04:06 PM UTC

Trump Meets Shooting Victims, Talks About Crowd Sizes

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• by: Colorado Pols

As CNN reports, President Trump is very sad that people are not viewing him as some sort of hero for visiting hospitals in Ohio and Texas in the wake of last weekend’s mass shootings:

Some of President Donald Trump’s own aides conceded Thursday that his visits to two cities in mourning did not go as planned, as a new video revealed he bragged about crowd sizes while visiting patients at an El Paso hospital. [Pols emphasis]

“That was some, that was some crowd,” Trump said, according to cell phone video from one attendee. “And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, they said his crowd was wonderful.”

White House officials blocked reporters and their cameras from entering the two hospitals during his visits to Ohio and Texas this week, a move they said was out of respect for the patients’ privacy. But according to one person familiar with the President’s reaction, the President lashed out at his staff for keeping the cameras away from him, complaining that he wasn’t receiving enough credit. Aides had feared a moment like the one that is now going viral — where the President appears to focus on himself in front of those still recovering from a tragedy. [Pols emphasis]

The Washington Post has more on Trump’s troubled visits:

Inside the White House, the trip was generally seen as “not ideal,” in the words of one senior administration official, as the president spent much of the day attacking his foes and complaining via Twitter as he traveled to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso. The weekend shootings left 31 dead and dozens injured.

Four other aides, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, described the trip in similar terms.

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