Beto O’Rourke: US-Mexico border ‘one of the safest places in the United States’

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) denounced President Trump’s prime-time speech on Tuesday night as an effort to “instill anxiety and paranoia” about the U.S.-Mexico border, which the potential 2020 presidential candidate called “one of the safest places” in the country.

O’Rourke, an El Paso, Texas, native who represented a congressional district near the border for three terms, posted a two-minute video late Tuesday that showed the southern border. He described the area as “peaceful” just hours after Trump delivered an Oval Office address aimed at building support for his proposed border wall.

{mosads}”By any measure the border is as safe as it’s ever been,” O’Rourke said. “And the president using fear and anecdote to try to instill anxiety and paranoia to build the political will to construct this wall that would cost $30 billion and take private property and cause death and suffering … that was what we heard from the Oval Office.”

“And we need to meet that fear with the truth, with our ambition, with the best traditions of this country,” he added.

A shot of the U.S.-Mexico border pic.twitter.com/R35klcZ0Ov

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) January 8, 2019

O’Rourke, who lost his Senate bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in November, is considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2020. He has not yet indicated whether he will run.

Trump, in his first prime-time address from the Oval Office, delivered many of his typical talking points on immigration and the need to construct a wall along the southern border. He warned of criminals and drugs coming over the border, and blamed Democrats for refusing to cooperate.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded by saying Trump’s statements were misleading, and calling on him to reopen the government.

The president’s desire for more than $5 billion in funding for the wall triggered a partial government shutdown that has entered its 19th day. Trump is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders on Wednesday, though no breakthrough appears imminent.