On a hospital visit to mass shooting victims in El Paso, Trump made sure to remind everyone how great his rally there was
- In a video that emerged Thursday, President Donald Trump boasted of the size of crowds at a rally while visiting hospital staff and victims of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
- "That was some crowd," President Trump said in a video of himself on a visit to meet first responders and victims of the El Paso mass shooting. "And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had 400 people in a parking lot."
- President Trump has been criticised for his response to the El Paso mass shooting, seeming to eschew the role of "consoler-in-chief."
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President Donald Trump, on a visit to meet first responders, medics and victims of Saturday's mass shooting at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, bragged about the size of crowds at his recent rally in the city.
The footage, in a video recorded at the visit and later broadcast by local news, shows that politics and the campaign trail was not far from Trump's mind.
In the tape filmed in the University Medical Center in the city, published by CBS4, Trump is apparently addressing first responders and other hospital staff.
"They're talking about you all over the world. The job you've done is incredible," he tells them, before beginning to talk about how many people attended a rally he held in the city in February.
"I was here three months ago and we made a speech," Trump said. "What was the name of the arena? That place was packed."
He went on to insult El Paso native and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, who held a counter-rally in February.
"That was some crowd," Trump said in the video. "And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had 400 people in a parking lot."
The White House barred reporters from Trump's hospital visit, meaning information about what happened has only emerged in partial form.
Trump visited El Paso on Wednesday in the wake of a mass shooting targetting Hispanic Americans and migrants in a Walmart on Saturday in which 22 people were killed. O'Rourke has accused the president being a white nationalist who inspired the suspect with his hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Trump condemned white nationalism in remarks Monday.
O'Rourke in a tweet Thursday hit back at Trump's comments in the video.
The president has been criticised by Democrats and other for his response to the tragedies, which saw him attack political opponents including O'Rourke, and rival Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as he travelled to El Paso.
This came only two days after he urged a new spirit of unity, in a speech read from a teleprompter in the White House.
A video shared by Trump of his visit to the El Paso hospital has been likened to a campaign advert, and shows images of Trump being photographed with smiling hospital workers to a rousing soundtrack.
According to reports, most of the patients being treated for wounds after the shooting refused to meet the president.
Trump has struggled with the "consoler-in-chief" role traditionally played by presidents after national tragedies, reading out a scripted speech after the February 2017 Parkland high school shooting, and attracting criticism for selfies showing him grinning and giving a thumbs-up gesture in pictures with first responders.
The president replicated the gesture in pictures with first responders and victims Wednesday.