President Trump visits my town
Fake News lies (tell us something new, James!)
I could not get a blog posted yesterday as I spent the entire day attending a very brief visit by President Trump to our area. Perhaps the local (mainstream news) publicized it in advance.
I wouldn’t know as I gave up on them a long time ago. The local TV channel in Asheville is an ABC-TV affiliate and the daily rag is owned by Gannett, the chain that publishes USA Today. So, I only heard late last Friday evening that the President would be making a stop in the Asheville area on Monday.
It took until late Sunday evening for my friends, Kevin and Julie (whom some of you know if you have attended our Bible Conferences), to get them, me and a neighbor friend of mine official tickets to be able to attend the event.
It was not billed as a rally, but simply to be a group of supporters who would be there at the airport to greet the President while on his way, with daughter Ivanka to Mills River, a crossroads town about eight miles south of the airport.
There, Ivanka would be taking center stage for her involvement in a federally funded food program to help feed the poor. (Relates to the Bible law of leaving the “gleanings” for the poor among you.)
He would also be going to Charlotte to receive the legal nomination of the states’ Republican Party delegates to run for re-election on the November 3rd ballot. With all that on his schedule, we were not even assured that the President (POTUS) would have time to address the crowd at the airport. We took a chance.
Our “ticket” consisted of a PDF listing all the do’s and don’ts of attending the event. That ticket, plus a photo ID, would authorize our admittance. We were to go to a free parking facility and drive in via gate 7.
That would put us about a mile or so from the airport. There, we would be able to board a highway-coach-sized shuttle bus which would transport us to the airport. We were instructed to show up between 9:30 and 11 a.m. Anyone not inside gate 7 by that time would be denied entrance.
My neighbor and I arrived at 9:45, figuring we’d be early. Entering gate 7, we found an already very long line of people waiting to board the shuttle buses. That commenced what turned out to be a very long day of standing—five hours all tolled.
Although it was overcast most of the day, the temperature was around 90 degrees, and with the overcast sky, it turn humid very soon after we took our place in the Q (oops, I meant “in the queue.”). The lines moved very slowly but we finally got through the security sweep area at one of the private terminals at the Asheville airport.
While in line there, I recognized our dear friend, “Nancy Pelosi,” in line behind me. She graciously granted me the great honor and privilege to have a “selfie” taken with her. Here it is.
After first getting in the queue at gate 7 to await boarding one of the shuttle buses, I mentioned to my friend, JJ, that since the cut-off time was 11 a.m., I suspected that POTUS should arrive around noon, “but watch,” I joked, “it will probably be 1 or 1:30 p.m. before his plane arrives.”
Way off, James! It turned out to be almost exactly 3 p.m. when he took the mic in front of the cordoned-off area for us at the private terminal. It would be hard to overdo the superlatives as I attempt to describe for you the enthusiasm and excitement of the small crowd which greeted our President.
The only thing I have attended which I can compare it to is the enthusiasm and excitement of attending one of the Ohio State Buckeye home games in Columbus with the Horseshoe (stadium) usually sold-out in excess of 105,000 fans! I am sure the excitement is equal to that at the games of any other of the teams that perennially dominate the college football scene: Alabama, Clemson, LSU, etc.
Though the crowd at the airport was small in comparison, it was electric with energy at seeing the POTUS aircraft arrive. I had learned after talking with one of the Secret Service agents and a local county deputy that Air Force One would not be landing at Asheville. For safety reasons, AF-1 generally only lands on runways that are at least 8,500 feet long. AVL’s is 7,001 feet long.
We were told AF-1 would be landing at Charlotte. While there, Mr. Trump would be receiving the legal nomination of the states’ Republican Party delegates to run for re-election on the November 3rd ballot.
When the deafening roar of three Marine Osprey aircraft (the vertical take-off planes with utterly monster-sized engines) reached our ears, the crowd began to cheer and hold up their signs.
The Ospreys presumably served as additional air security for POTUS, as well as ferrying members of the press corps from Charlotte to AVL. Shortly, thereafter, two slim Marine helicopters landed and the President, Ivanka, and their entourage disembarked and made their way to us at the cordoned-off area.
Also in the entourage were POTUS’ Chief of Staff (and our former Congressman) Mark Meadows and his wife, Debbie; Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany; and (I cannot be positive, but I think it was) National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, who was standing next to CoS Meadows in the iPhone video which I recorded of the President’s remarks. It runs about 10 minutes.
By the time it was over, I realized that aside from an 8-ounce glass of apple cider vinegar which I drink upon arising, I had had no food or drink since then. Two women had passed out of apparent heat exhaustion while we were still in the sunny cordoned-off area while waiting for the POTUS entourage to caravan down to Mills River.
It was at least 45 minutes in that wait. Then we had the choice to either wait a long time for the shuttle buses to make their round trips to gate 7 or to hoof the mile or so. JJ and I walked. Getting to the gate I had the opportunity to ask one of the bus drivers how many trips they had made and how many passengers they held.
Based on that, I calculated conservatively that the shuttled Trump supporters, plus an estimated 200-400 more people who parked elsewhere and/or were in the VIP area would have given a total crowd size of between 1,200 to 1,400.
I am told that the local fake news affiliates reported the crowd size at around 200. (…sigh…) And they wonder why their credibility is sliding towards zero. Oh, well, stayed tuned for a historic landslide in November!