OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — President Donald Trump gave the people attending the rally what they wanted to hear.
But afterward, despite having 40 buses, many didn’t get the ride they were looking for.
They were stuck on an airport road, miles from their cars, with wind chills below freezing.
Mayor Jean Stothert said Wednesday that she was at the rally and that the Trump campaign, not the city, organized the whole event, with OPD there to provide mutual support to the US Secret Service.
Mayor Stothert said one major issue was the lack of buses.
She says over 22,000 people went inside the event, with thousands more left outside.
“The Trump campaign had 40 buses and that 40 buses, they picked that number because they thought that that was the amount they needed to transport ten-thousand people,” says Jean Stothert, Mayor of Omaha.
Rally attendees were told to park in the South Economy Lot at Eppley Airfield. The distance between that lot and TAC Air, where the event was held, is over three miles.
Photos from Aaron Sanderford at the Omaha World-Herald show attendees stranded on the street, some walking, some waiting for a bus.
In response, the Trump campaign said they had plenty of buses,
"Because of the sheer size of the crowd, we deployed 40 shuttle buses – double the normal allotment – but local road closures and resulting congestion caused delays," says Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary to the Trump campaign.
OPD tells 3 News Now that foot traffic on the street slowed down the buses.
Former Vice President Biden spoke on what happened Wednesday morning, saying it captures the president’s whole approach to this crisis.
“He takes a lot of big pronouncements, he makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don’t hold up. He gets his photo-op and then gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequences of this failure,” says Biden.
Less than 10 people were taken to the hospital with a variety of medical conditions, according to law enforcement.
Police did help take people who were older or in poorer health to their cars, they say the last person to get on a bus got on at 11:50 p.m., around three hours after Trump’s speech ended.
