Hundreds and hundreds of rally participants were stranded for hours as chaotic scenes spread across a remote strip near Omaha Airport. They were waiting for the oncoming buses to arrive or not, could not reach the place due to the two-lane congested road.
Many people started walking in their cars parked three to four miles away, which also blocked the roads ahead. CNN Saw some doctors paying attention to people in the bone-climbing evening air. The temperature was cool, but the wind was low.
Late last night the president commented on the weather.
“I mean, I’m stuck here. I want to thank you a little: Hell out and vote,” Trump said enthusiastically from the crowd. “Great red wave. At least you’re down there with each other. I’m all over here and the wind is blowing.”
Trump did not immediately respond to CNN’s request to comment on the campaign.
After the rally, police officers tried to control the scene, but struggled to bring order to the epidemic. No campaign advance teams were in sight. A local Advance Volunteer said they had not been instructed on how to get supporters back on the buses.
“We need at least 30 more buses,” the Omaha police officer said, shaking his head.
For months, the Trump campaign has used the practice of handing out buses to supporters, from parking lots at rally venues as a way to accommodate large crowds. Their events are held in locations such as small airports that do not typically draw crowds the size of a rally and therefore ite night parking is not available to support the influence of people and crowds.
This has created a scenario where thousands of people wait for hours after the incident of putting the buses back in their cars. Hundreds of supporters were forced to wait for a bus or decide to go through several lanes, without a sidewalk, in their parking lot at an event in North Carolina’s guest onia last Wednesday.
Those who put it on the bus, after just a long wait with hundreds of others – like most not wearing masks – until every bus seat is taken and where no social distance is studied.
It is unlikely that anyone participating in the rally will change their mind as they count some committed supporters. But that’s hardly the kind of local news you want to produce – especially in Nebraska, which is experiencing a fourth-straight week of record covid cases.
CNN’s Ryan Nobles and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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