Stranding supporters

Biden rips Trump for stranding supporters after Omaha rally

“He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan,” the Democratic presidential nominee said.

By QUINT FORGEY

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned President Donald Trump’s campaign for stranding supporters in freezing temperatures following a rally the previous evening — arguing that the episode was emblematic of the White House’s failed pandemic response.

The remarks from the former vice president came during an address in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., on the day after hundreds of people who showed up for Trump’s rally Tuesday night in Omaha, Neb., were left waiting for buses to transport them from the event site at Eppley Airfield back to their cars parked several miles away.

Some Trump supporters were forced to endure the frigid conditions into early Wednesday morning, and local law enforcement reported that six people were taken to local hospitals, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Trump said at the rally that 29,000 people were in the audience.

On Wednesday afternoon, Biden lamented that the rally attendees, “including older Americans and children, were stranded in sub-zero freezing temperatures for hours,” adding that “it … captures President Trump’s whole approach in this crisis.”

“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 consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan,” Biden said. “It seems like he just doesn’t care much about it.”

In a statement to the World-Herald, Trump campaign spokesperson Samantha Zager said the campaign had “deployed 40 shuttle buses — double the normal allotment — but local road closures and resulting congestion caused delays.”