El Paso, Texas, Mayor Dee Margo said this week President Trump questioned his status as a Republican when he visited the city in the wake of a mass shooting.
Mr. Margo told PBS he wanted to settle a disagreement the two had about border security stemming from a tiff earlier this month, saying he wanted Mr. Trump to know a border wall isn’t the only thing that will solve immigration.
After the president said earlier this year that El Paso was crime-ridden until a border fence was built, Mr. Margo wrote an op-ed correcting the president’s claims on the wall’s impact on crime rates. The president, in turn, held an El Paso rally where he said the mayor and other fact-checkers were “full of crap.”
When asked whether he brought up the exchange during Mr. Trump’s visit, Mr. Margo said, “No, but he kinda did.”
“He said, ’You’re a RINO’ (Republican In Name Only). I said, ’No, sir. I am not a RINO. I simply corrected the misinformation you were given by [the Texas] attorney general, and that’s all I did,’ ” Mr. Margo said, adding the president “kinda grinned” at the response.
Mr. Trump traveled to Dayton, Ohio, and then El Paso Wednesday to meet with the people affected by back-to-back mass shootings that left 31 dead and dozens injured.
He received criticism in El Paso for bragging about his rally sizes, smiling and posing with a baby who was orphaned from the shooting, and creating a campaign video out of the visit despite reporters being barred from the hospital.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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