Updated at 6:51 p.m.
Update: Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman told Denverite that he welcomes the former president's potential visit.
“Bring it on. Come here. I'm excited for you to come here so I could show you that the narrative that is being presented nationally about this city isn't true," Coffman said, "That there are no apartment complexes under gang control, that the city's not under gang control, Venezuelan gang control.”
Our original story continues below.
Former President and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said he will visit Aurora, as he doubled down on false claims that the city of 400,000 people has been taken over by a Venezuelan gang.
“I'm going to go there in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield [Ohio] and I’m going to Aurora,” he told the crowd at a campaign rally in New York Wednesday.
Trump falsely claimed that Venezuelans are “taking over large pieces of real estate in Colorado” and that the governor is “petrified” and “he doesn’t want to talk about it.”
He added law enforcement is “afraid in these places because it’s so violent. They’ve never seen people like this.”
Talk of a Venezuela gang in Aurora has become a major theme from right wing politicians and made headlines in conservative media in recent weeks. Local police and officials say the gang, Tren de Aragua, does have a presence in the Denver metro area, but added that it is dwarfed by the activities of domestic gangs.
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