Columbus, Ohio (CNN) Even before Donald Trump kicked off his town hall event Monday he gathered reporters to decry "politics at its lowest" -- but he wasn't talking about Hillary Clinton or the latest controversy swirling around his campaign, his feud with the parents of a slain Muslim US soldier.

Instead, Trump was unleashing on the local fire marshal, accusing the city official of turning away thousands of Trump supporters without cause. It was the second time in three days Trump has lambasted a local fire marshal during a campaign rally.

"He ought to be ashamed of himself. They turned away thousands of people," Trump told supporters when he kicked off his rally.

CNN could not independently verify the number of people who were turned away from attending Trump's campaign event Monday in Columbus. But the Columbus Fire Department rejected Trump's accusations, insisting it was simply ensuring the event's safety by keeping the crowd size below the 1,000-person capacity for the venue the campaign had agreed to rent.

"All I can tell you is the venue's set up for 1,000 people, and I think there was just a big misunderstanding is what it was," Assistant Columbus Fire Chief Jim Cannell told CNN after the event. "There was a thousand people in here and once we reach capacity we can't let any more people in."

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