This is being posted about five hours after appearing on the web. The source, Iowa Starting Line, scores well for factual reporting but is definitely "Left Biased."
Overall, we rate Iowa Starting Line Left Biased based on story selection that favors the left and High for factual reporting based on strong sourcing.
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Trump Supporters Left Stranded At Freezing Omaha Airport
Posted October 28th, 2020 at 12:26am
By Paige Godden
After the President boarded Air Force One and departed the state, many of the attendees, some of whom waited more than four hours to listen to him speak, stood in the freezing temperatures on a private road in the middle of the airport.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported “thousands” of people were stuck in the cold more than an hour after Trump took off from the airport.
According to a Twitter account named “Omaha Scanner,” police officers located two groups of elderly Trump supporters shortly after the event ended who were struggling in the cold. One group was reportedly frozen in the cold and unable to move.
Another complaint included a call for a medic to assist a 68 year-old man who complained of hypothermia and possibly had an altered mental status.
The event itself seemed poorly planned from the beginning.
Trump’s campaign told his rally-goers to arrive at Eppley at 4:30 p.m. By then, cars were lined up for miles trying to get into the airport, and the security team was directing people in circles.
At one point, security said the South Economy parking lot where the cars were being directed to was full, and pointed people toward the north lot. Security at the north lot then directed the cars of people, who had already waited in line once, back to the South Economy lot.
The security team then told people who started parking in a cell phone lot across the street from the South Economy lot that they may be towed.
Most ignored the warning and proceeded into the South Economy lot, where they found thousands of people standing in four separate lines to get onto charter buses.
A group of people in the cell phone lot gave up their place in the long line to go offer to move their cars somewhere else so they wouldn’t be towed, but the security team then said their cars wouldn’t be towed out of the nearby lot.
People were directed to stand in the long lines to get on charter buses that would drive them to the event. It took well over two hours to get through the line.
While thousands of people stood in the lines, the flow of buses was not at all constant.
At about 6:45 p.m. (the Trump event was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.) YouTubers Camille & Haley showed up to sing songs like “Back the Blue” and “Vote Trump 2020” for the people still the lines in the South Economy lot.
Once on the buses, people were transported more than 3.5 miles down a private road to another part of the airport. It took more than half-an-hour for the buses to get from the South Economy lot to the place where they could be unloaded.
Once at the event, people walked a few blocks toward tents where volunteers took everyone’s temperatures.
Attendees were led through another one- to two-hour long queue to get inside the event.
Trump landed at the airport and began speaking while thousands of people were still waiting in the queue to get in the event.
Some started shouting for the line to move faster, and some began saying they needed to use the restroom and threatened to relieve themselves while waiting in line.
While Trump left the event quickly in Air Force One, attendees were stuck for hours outside in freezing cold temperatures in the dark.
Trump was visiting Nebraska to secure his standing in the state’s 2nd congressional district (largely Omaha-based), which could flip to Joe Biden next week as Nebraska awards some of its electoral votes per congressional districts.
Some Iowa politicians were on hand for the rally, which was right over the Iowa border. Sen. Joni Ernst, however, did not get a chance to speak to the crowd despite being locked in a very tight reelection race.
by Paige Godden
Posted 10/28/20
Washington Post noted this event a few hours later.
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 that 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 withering cold, as police scrambled to help the 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.
The Trump campaign said it had provided enough buses but that traffic on the two-lane road outside the airport was throttled to one direction after the rally, tweeted Aaron Sanderford, a political reporter at the Omaha World-Herald. The campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message from The Post early on Wednesday.
The confusion and the freezing weather added to the health risks that accompany every Trump rally during the novel coronavirus pandemic. In Omaha, an estimated crowd of more than 6,000 people jammed into risers outside the airport. Though the campaign checked temperatures and provided masks, many people didn’t wear them, the World-Herald reported.
In the lead-up to the rally, police warned that parking lots were full. With buses taking a half-hour to ferry people more than three miles away to the rally site, hundreds of attendees were late to get inside, reported Iowa Starting Line, a liberal news site.
After Trump’s speech, where he promised that “we’re making that final turn” on covid-19 in a state where positivity rates now exceed 20 percent, per the World-Herald, Trump flew away on Air Force One around 9 p.m. Attendees began lining up for buses to return to their cars.
By nearly 10:30 p.m., though, they were still waiting.
“President Trump took off in Air Force One 1 hr 20 minutes ago, but thousands of his supporters remain stranded on a dark road outside the rally,” tweeted CNN’s Jeff Zeleny.
Zeleny wrote that he watched one Omaha police officer shake his head at the “chaotic cluster” and say, “We need at least 30 more buses.”
Soon, officers were radioing in about numerous elderly attendees struggling in the cold, according to Omaha Scanner. Police began shuttling some people to their cars to get them out of the elements.
“As we were walking, I saw at least two @OmahaPolice officers helping people who were getting cold, one elderly lady and a young boy,” Sanderford tweeted.
The crowds didn’t fully clear the rally site until after 12:30 a.m. — more than three-and-a-half hours after Trump departed — Sanderford reported.
Some local Democrats blamed the president for the scene.
“Supporters of the President were brought in, but buses weren’t able to get back to transport people out. It’s freezing and snowy in Omaha tonight,” tweeted Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt (D). “He truly does not care about you.”
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