While visiting a hospital in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday after a mass shooting that left 22 people dead, President Donald Trump found time to boast about the crowd size at a campaign rally he held in the city several months ago.
Trump was meeting with a team of medical staffers at the University Medical Center, where eight victims of the shooting are still in recovery, when he suddenly brought up the rally he held in El Paso (for which his campaign still hasn’t paid back its debt of over $400,000 to the city).
“I was here three months ago and we made a speech,” he said before shaking the hand of a hospital employee who said he was at the front row of that rally (which was held in February, not three months ago).
“That was some crowd,” Trump bragged. “And we had twice the number outside.”
That led to a tangent about 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke and the counter-protest he had led on the day of Trump’s rally.
“And then you had this crazy Beto,” he continued. “Beto had like 400 people in the parking lot. They said his crowd was wonderful. But we had some—”
Trump then interrupted himself to admire a hospital worker’s Trump-themed socks.
“Oh wow! Look at that,” he exclaimed. “Don’t tell it to the press because they won’t even believe it.”
O’Rourke hit back at Trump later in the day, tweeting, “This community is focused on healing. Not hatred. Not racism. Certainly not crowd sizes.”
This community is focused on healing. Not hatred. Not racism. Certainly not crowd sizes. Our community — and our country — will not be defined by @realdonaldtrump’s smallness. We will be defined by the love, compassion, and strength of El Paso. https://t.co/etBaR9W0eA
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 8, 2019
Watch local CBS affiliate CBS4’s video of Trump below:
This is viewer video of President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS at @umcelpaso meeting with victims and medical staff. Send us any photos/videos of president Trump's visit to #ElPaso and we may show it on TV. Upload here: https://t.co/UHa4MdGOH4 pic.twitter.com/DD5otJtYEg
— CBS4Local (@CBS4Local) August 8, 2019
