WHIO-TV’s Cheryl McHenry travels with President Trump during Dayton visit

McHenry will have a full report of her day with the president tonight starting at 5 on Channel 7.

WHIO-TV anchor Cheryl McHenry traveled with President Donald Trump today as he visited first responders and shooting victims at Miami Valley Hospital.

McHenry watched the president and first lady Melania Trump come off of Air Force One around 11 a.m. and greet Gov. Mike DeWine, first lady Fran DeWine, Mayor Nan Whaley, Congressman Mike Turner and others.

“It started early, there was a lot of waiting around,” McHenry said. She had to be at the base by 8:40 a.m.

As she rode in the motorcade, she said you could see people on the highway waving some in support, some not,” McHenry said. The president traveled along I-675 and U.S. 35 on his way to the hospital.

She said the motorcade was huge, “about 50 cars.”

“We didn’t get to have any photo-ops,” she said.

She said the most “impressive thing for me was when we were standing under the wing of Air Force One just 10 yards behind the line of dignitaries.”

The president was only on the tarmac for about 10 minutes, she said.

“We wondered if he was headed to the Oregon District,” she said. However the president was behind schedule on his way to El Paso.

McHenry spent time with some of the national press. “They were surprised we were not able to get any photo op with the victims,” she said.

McHenry said she just got to see the president “coming and going.”

“We didn’t get close enough to talk to first responders, patients or anything.”

McHenry got an exclusive interview with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who said the president met with survivors and six police officers who fired shots at the gunman during Sunday’s mass shooting in the Oregon District.

McHenry will have a complete report of her day with the president tonight starting at 5.