Hundreds of President Donald Trump supporters were stranded in freezing temperatures after an outdoor rally in Omaha, Nebraska Tuesday night.
Buses transported the rally-goers to the site at Eppley Airfield but were delayed in picking them up. The buses reportedly had problems navigating traffic, leaving many stranded even into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A total of 30 received medical attention, Omaha Police Department officials said.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, speaking in his Wilmington, Delaware hometown, blasted Trump for his handling of the event, which sent seven people to local hospitals.
Biden said those in attendance at the campaign rally included older Americans and children, and he blasted the president for leaving them “stranded in sub-zero freezing temperatures for hours,” opining that “it … captures President Trump’s whole approach in this crisis.”
Read More: Hundreds of Trump supporters wait in cold for buses after Nebraska rally
“He makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don’t hold up,” Biden contended. “He gets his photo op and then gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan. It seems like he just doesn’t care much about it.”
Trump bragged that more than 29,000 people attended the rally.
Supporters were stranded at the site for hours after Trump departed on Air Force One. The temperature in Omaha was in the 30s but reportedly dropped to -27 with the wind chill.
During the rally, Trump commented on the temperature.
“I mean, I’m standing here freezing. I ask you one little favor: Get the hell out and vote,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd. “The great red wave. At least you’re down there with each other. I’m all up here, and that wind is blowing.”
In an op-ed piece for CNN, writer Joe Lockhart called the chaotic scene “the perfect metaphor for Trump’s treatment of his loyal supporters.”
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“You might say the President isn’t responsible for the buses at his rallies. And in one sense that’s true. But in another it’s not,” Lockhart wrote.
He continued: “I can tell you, the five presidential candidates I’ve worked for would have fired whoever was responsible for last night and apologized publicly to the city of Omaha. Don’t hold your breath for Trump to do anything like that.”
The Trump campaign deflected blame for the chaos, pointing to traffic problems. The president has not commented on it.
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