The awkward moment the mayor of Dayton first read Donald Trump’s inflammatory tweets accusing her of ‘misrepresenting’ his hospital visit has been caught on camera, with the Democratic official admitting she was confused by his words.
Nan Whaley can be seen shrugging her shoulders adding: ‘O well, you know, he lives in his world of Twitter’ after the president said her press conference following his trip to the city was a ‘fraud’.
Shaking her head, she adds: ‘I don’t, I mean I am really like confused, we said he was treated like very well, so.’
Trump on Wednesday blasted Whaley and Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, accusing them of speaking being ‘dishonest’ and saying: ‘They shouldn’t be politicking today.’
The two had given a press conference directly after touring Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton with the president to meet survivors, first responders and medical staff, and after saying that the president had been right to comfort people, had said they pressed him on gun control.
But Trump unleashed first on Twitter then in person after seeing the press conference on live television.
US President Donald Trump greets Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, as he arrives at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The moment Whaley first read Trump’s inflammatory tweets accusing her of ‘misrepresenting’ his hospital visit has been caught on camera
Trump blasted Whaley and Ohio senator Sherrod Brown on Twitter following his visit to Ohio
Jabbing at Brown who decided not to run for president in March Trump wrote: ‘Just left Dayton, Ohio, where I met with the Victims & families, Law Enforcement, Medical Staff & First Responders. It was a warm & wonderful visit. Tremendous enthusiasm & even Love. Then I saw failed Presidential Candidate (0%) Sherrod Brown & Mayor Whaley totally…..
‘….misrepresenting what took place inside of the hospital. Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud. It bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!o’
When he arrived in El Paso, the site of Saturday’s first gun massacre, he added: ‘I turned on the television and there they were saying “oh I don’t know if it was appropriate for the president to be there,” etc etc, you know, the same old line.
‘They’re very dishonest people and that’s probably why he got I think maybe zero per cent and failed as a presidential candidate.’
His White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham also told DailyMail.com that Brown and Whaley intentionally exaggerated the degree to which they claimed they pressed Trump for action on gun control when they spoke after taking part in his visit to the hospital.
‘The two of them are playing up what little conversation they had, saying they made comments or demands and that’s just not true,’ Grisham said in an email.
Grisham told CNN that the press conference was ‘disgusting’ and tweeted that it was ‘genuinely sad to see them immediately hold such a dishonest press conference in the name of partisan politics.’
Director of Oval Office Operations Dan Scavino tweeted that Brown and Whaley were ‘LYING & completely mischaracterizing what took place w/ the President’s visit to Miami Valley Hospital.’
‘They are disgraceful politicians, doing nothing but politicizing a mass shooting, at every turn they can. The President was treated like a Rock Star inside the hospital, which was all caught on video. They all loved seeing their great President!’
At the airport Whaley shook the president’s hand on the tarmac alongside Brown – who said he wouldn’t meet with Trump over ‘racist rhetoric’ but apparently changed his mind
Brown and Whaley held a press conference after the president’s visit to Dayton. Brown had been complimentary toward the president, acknowledging the warm welcome he received and his efforts to play the role of comforter-in-chief
Donald and Melania Trump pose with emergency first responders at Miami Valley Hospital
Trump visited survivors, first responders and staff at Miami Valley Hospital on Wednesday
At the airport, Whaley shook the president’s hand on the tarmac alongside Brown – who said he wouldn’t meet with Trump over ‘racist rhetoric’ but apparently changed his mind.
And Brown had been complimentary toward the president, acknowledging the warm welcome he received and his efforts to play the role of comforter-in-chief.
Brown told reporters that the president and first lady Melania Trump were ‘received well by the patients as you’d expect. They’re hurting.’
‘Well, he was comforting, and he did the right things, and Melania did the right things,’ the senator continued. ‘And it’s his job in part to comfort people. I’m glad he did it in those closed-door hospital rooms.’
Brown also discussed why he had initially balked at meeting with the president in Dayton, saying that ‘I didn’t want in any way to encourage the president’s racist talk, divisive talk.’
Brown added later that he was ‘very concerned about a president that divides in his rhetoric and plays to race in his rhetoric and is racist.’
Grisham told reporters aboard Air Force One as it flew to Texas that ‘there was no conversation about gun control’ while he was at the hospital.
But Brown and Whaley both said they had pressed Trump about the hot-button topic on the tarmac when he arrived.
Demonstrators line the street near Miami Valley Hospital. Trump left Ohio without setting foot in the entertainment sector that the shooter targeted
A Trump supporter drives a bus with flags supporting Trump down 5th Street at the site of Sunday morning’s mass shooting that left nine dead and 27 wounded
Trump left Ohio without setting foot in the entertainment sector that the shooter targeted.
‘I think it was a good decision for him not to stop in the Oregon District,’ Whaley said at a news conference after Trump left, mentioning the lingering ‘anger and agitation’ in the neighborhood. ‘I think a lot of people that own businesses in that district aren’t interested in the president being there. And you know, a lot of the time his talk can be very divisive, and that’s the last thing we need in Dayton.’
No motive has been established behind the shooting in Dayton, unlike Friday’s incident in El Paso, Texas, where the suspect left behind a 2,300-word manifesto that raged about the ‘Hispanic invasion of Texas,’ posted online minutes before the shooting began on Saturday at a Wal-Mart in the Southern border city.
Trump on Monday blamed the internet, social media, computer games and ‘mental illness’ for the two mass shootings that killed 31 people over the weekend.