Scorching heat at Trump rally in Las Vegas sends six to hospital, fire department says
Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on June 10, 2024
(LAS VEGAS) — Six people were taken to a hospital, while another two dozen received medical attention on site at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Las Vegas on Sunday amid extreme heat, the Clark County Fire Department said.
The county fire department said “most, if not all calls, were heat-related” — with 97 people utilizing its cooling tents. Temperatures on Sunday topped 100 degrees and the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat watch.
Prior to the rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas the Trump campaign stressed its efforts to implement “comfort measures” to ensure the safety of rally goers who usually spend hours waiting in line just to get into Trump rallies and additional hours waiting for Trump to take the stage — including providing water bottles, allowing small umbrellas into the rally, setting up tents and misting stations, and deploying “ample” medical staff in case of emergencies.
Trump’s Las Vegas rally follows a town hall on Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona, when the temperature also hit triple digits, sending 11 to the hospital, ABC News’ Phoenix affiliate KNXV reported.
At Sunday’s Las Vegas rally, Trump was expected to focus on courting Latino voters, emphasizing his campaign rhetoric on border security and undocumented immigrants, but the former president struggled to stick to a topic after his campaign ran into issues with his teleprompter.
Despite hurdles with the teleprompter and the weather, Trump announced his plan to get rid of taxes on tips, an attempt at courting voters in a city that relies heavily on the hospitality industry.
“For those hotel workers and people that get tips — you’re going to be very happy because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips people make,” Trump said, acknowledging that it could be an “unpopular” policy.
“We’re gonna do that right away, first thing in office,” Trump continued. “… And you do a great job of service. You take care of people, and I think it’s going to be something that really is deserved, more important than popular, unpopular. I do some unpopular things too, if it’s right for the country. I do what’s right.”
Appealing to Hispanic voters, Trump railed against Biden’s immigration policies and the economy under the current administration, calling Biden’s new executive order on immigration from last week, “pro invasion, pro child trafficking, pro woman trafficking, pro human trafficking,and pro drug dealers.”
“It’s weak, it’s ineffective, it’s bullsh–, what he signed,” Trump said.
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