O’Rourke goes off on press when asked what Trump can do to stop shootings
Democratic White House hopeful Beto O’Rourke delivered a passionate response on Sunday when asked by a reporter what President Trump could do to stop mass shootings after the U.S. was rocked by two this weekend.
“What do you think? You know the shit he’s been saying,” the former Texas congressman told reporters in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where 20 people were killed on Saturday. “He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don’t know, like, members of the press, what the f—?”
“It’s these questions that you know the answers to. I mean, connect the dots about what he’s been doing in this country. He’s not tolerating racism, he’s promoting racism. He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country. So you know, I just — I don’t know what kind of question that is.”
I didn’t get video, but here’s audio of the question and Beto O’Rourke’s answer. This came after an emotional vigil in El Paso, as O’Rourke circled behind a building looking for his wife. pic.twitter.com/VBk8xoE1lz
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) August 5, 2019
Less than 24 hours after the shooting at a Walmart in a Hispanic community near the border in El Paso, at least nine people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a Dayton, Ohio, shooting.
{mosads}The two shootings are not believed to be linked.
Patrick Wood Crusius, the alleged gunman in the El Paso shooting, reportedly drove eight hours from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to the city.
He allegedly wrote a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto before the attack, which described fears of a Latino “invasion.”
O’Rourke, a former El Paso city councilman and mayor pro tem, on Saturday said that Trump bears some responsibility for the attack.
O’Rourke and other Democratic leaders have drawn comparisons between Crusius’s alleged motives and Trump’s immigration rhetoric and suggested the president helped fuel the environment that led to the attack.
Trump told reporters Sunday that “hate has no place in our country” and on Monday suggested gun reform legislation should be tied to immigration reform.
He ignored questions Sunday about whether Crusius’s alleged manifesto shared similarities with his rhetoric and said the shootings are part of “a mental illness problem.”
Trump is set to deliver a speech in response to the shootings at 10 a.m
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