Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck on freezing cold Omaha airfield after rally, 7 taken to hospitals
Hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night, with some walking around 3 miles to waiting buses and others being taken away in ambulances.
Seven people were taken to area hospitals, suffering from a variety of conditions, and there were a total of 30 "contacted" for medical reasons, the Omaha Police Department said in a statement. The Omaha Airport Authority had a slightly different figure of the number taken to hospitals — it said six were "throughout the duration of the event" and added that it could not confirm that the people were taken to hospitals because of the cold.
The temperature in the area was in the mid-30s at the time, but as low as 27 degrees with wind chill.
Many of those at the rally at the Eppley Airfield faced hours in long lines to get in and clogged parking lots and busy crowds to get out, hours after Air Force One departed around 9 p.m. The police said the last person was loaded onto a bus at the rally site at 11:50 p.m. — about three hours after the event had ended.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden said the incident was emblematic of "Trump's whole approach."
"Just look what happened last night in Omaha, after the Trump rally ended, hundreds of people, including older Americans and children were stranded in sub-zero freezing temperatures for hours," Biden told reporters during a brief speech in Wilmington, Delaware. "Several folks ended up in the hospital...It's an image that captured President Trump's whole approach in this crisis...he makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don't hold up."
The police department said 25,000 people had been taken to the rally site by 40 buses running from 10:00 a.m. until the rally began at 8:00 p.m.
According to dispatches from the department, recorded by the radio communications platform Broadcastify, at least 30 people including the elderly, an electric wheelchair user and a family with small children were among those requiring medical attention after hours of waiting in the cold.
