President Trump is seen in newly released video recounting the crowd size at his rally earlier this year in El Paso while speaking to hospital workers in the city who treated victims of a recent mass shooting.
Local news stations in El Paso tweeted out the footage on Thursday, saying it was recorded by an individual who was present for Trump’s visit the previous day to the University Medical Center of El Paso.
“They’re talking about you all over the world. The job you’ve done is incredible,” Trump told hospital workers.{mosads}
Trump then noted he was in El Paso for a campaign rally earlier in the year and began talking about the crowd size, a subject the president often touts when speaking to supporters.
“I was here three months ago and we made a speech,” Trump said. “What was the name of the arena? That place was packed.”
The president proceeded to shake hands with a man off-camera who said he was in the front row of the February rally.
Trump also knocked “crazy Beto,” a reference to Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Trump and the former Texas congressman feuded in the lead-up to Trump’s visit on Wednesday.
“That was some crowd,” Trump said in the video. “And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had 400 people in a parking lot.”
The president held a rally at El Paso County Coliseum on Feb. 11 to boost support for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. During the rally, he claimed construction of an existing barrier reduced crime in the city, and dismissed local leaders who had insisted that was not the case as “full of crap.”
A city official said this week that the Trump campaign still owes more than $500,000 for police and public safety services related to the event.
Just a few miles away that night, O’Rourke held a counter-rally that drew thousands of attendees. O’Rourke, an El Paso native, has been outspoken in the days since the Saturday mass shooting in the city, decrying Trump as a racist and accusing the president of contributing to the violence with his rhetoric.
The video of Trump’s exchange with hospital workers offered an unvarnished look at the president’s trip to El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, where he met with first responders, victims and hospital workers. More than 30 people were killed in mass shootings that took place in the cities over the weekend.
The press was not allowed to view Trump’s meetings at the hospital, with the White House telling reporters the visits were not meant as photo ops. But the White House later released its own photos and produced videos that showed Trump smiling for photos and meeting with patients.