The end of last night’s Trump rally in Omaha couldn’t be a more perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump: Being left freezing in the dark, with no way to get out, and help being a long time coming.
After the rally ended, attendees were stuck, as there appeared to be no buses to get them back to the parking lots, located about 4 miles away:
Tweets from the scene
Thousands of people left out in the cold and stranded in #Omaha, #Nebraska after a #Trump rally. I’m told the shuttles aren’t operating & there aren’t enough busses. Police didn’t seem to know what to do. Some walked. I saw at least one woman getting medical attention. pic.twitter.com/oIkmixaZt0
— Jeff Paul (@Jeff_Paul) October 28, 2020
Trump held a rally at an Omaha airfield. He bussed in the supporters. After, he flew off in Air Force One, abandoning the attendees in the freezing cold with no buses. Omaha PD had to clean up his mess. Multiple people transferred to hospital for hypothermia or related problems. https://t.co/Pu4LjtIk5O
— Tara Haelle (@tarahaelle) October 28, 2020
With temperatures at freezing and people unable to get their cars, Omaha Police, who aren’t in the transport business, were stuck with the job of sorting things out.
And their hands were full. Here are some tweets from Omaha Scanner, a Twitter account that’s getting way more readers than usual this morning:
Cell service has come to a grinding halt and is hindering police communications.
— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 27, 2020
Officers are giving elderly attendees who are struggling in the cold rides closer to their vehicles.
— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 28, 2020
A couple to a few thousand still need to leave the venue. Roaming officers are checking for cold people walking. Medics treating a couple other people with cold feet.
— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 28, 2020
20 empty busses are stuck in the South Economy parking lot.
— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 28, 2020
One officer advising 8 to 9 elderly people who are struggling. Seperate officer advising they have located an elderly party who is frozen cold unable to move with an altered mental status.
— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 28, 2020
News reports
From the Omaha World-Herald piece, Hundreds of people waited hours in the cold for buses after Trump rally in Omaha:
Hundreds of people who attended President Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday evening at Eppley Airfield spent up to three hours in freezing temperatures waiting for buses to take them back to their cars.
Several people who were waiting required medical attention, based on reporting at the scene and local emergency scanner traffic.
Omaha Scanner, a Twitter account that monitors emergency scanner traffic, said seven people were taken to the hospital, but later tweeted that officials would have the exact count Wednesday.
The president, who spoke for nearly an hour, wrapped up shortly before 9 p.m. Some people in his audience waited until after midnight for campaign buses to take them to their cars, which were parked miles away.
Walking out of the rally, The World-Herald saw two people receive help from Omaha police — an elderly woman who was warming up in the back of a police cruiser and a boy to whom an officer lent a blanket.
The Washington Post reports in their piece, Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck in the cold for hours when buses can’t reach Omaha rally:
By the time President Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on Tuesday night and jetted away on Air Force One, the temperature had plunged to nearly freezing.
But as long lines of MAGA-clad attendees queued up for buses to take them to distant parking lots, it quickly became clear something was wrong.
The buses, the huge crowd soon learned, couldn’t navigate the jammed airport roads. For hours, attendees — including many elderly Trump supporters — stood in the cold, as police scrambled to help those most at-risk get to warmth.
At least seven people were taken to hospitals, according to Omaha Scanner, which monitors official radio traffic. Police and fire authorities didn’t immediately return messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday and declined to provide reporters on the scene with precise numbers of how many needed treatment.
Here’s a segment from MSNBC’s Morning Joe on what happened:
Stuck in the cold. Waiting in the dark for help that might not come. Victimized by bad planning. Other having to clean up the mess.
It’s the perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump.
One reply on “Omaha rally turns into perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump”
[…] In this new game, you don’t get the message “You have died of dysentery”. Instead, it’s “You have died of hypothermia walking back to your car after a Trump rally.” […]