Yesterday the Beto O’Rourke campaign promised that the 2020 Dem candidate who’s currently polling between 2 and 3 percent would deliver a “major address to the nation” today. That “major address to the nation” — which we’re guessing will not be seen by the vast majority of the nation — is basically another campaign reboot:
Beto O’Rourke takes the stage with his home town of El Paso behind him. Invited guests only for this speech today. pic.twitter.com/HLMhGbdvGz
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) August 15, 2019
LIVE now on C-SPAN2: @BetoORourke resumes his presidential campaign with an address in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.https://t.co/lixYEPWeI5 pic.twitter.com/NU9r4WUZ9o
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 15, 2019
In O’Rourke’s speech, not surprisingly, he basically blamed most if not all of America’s problems on Donald Trump:
O'Rourke: "Every single year for the last three hate crimes have been on the rise in this country. Those counties that hosted a Donald Trump rally saw hate crimes increased by more than 200%."
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) August 15, 2019
"We have a racism in America that is as old as America itself," Beto O'Rourke says in El Paso, Texas.
"But we have always tried, until now, to change that—until this president." https://t.co/gYC9Fkthag pic.twitter.com/cwClivorJx
— ABC News (@ABC) August 15, 2019
O'Rourke talks #TXSen directly: "That would not be good enough for this community. … We must take the fight directly to the source of this problem — that person who has caused this pain and placed this country in this moment of peril, and that is Donald Trump."
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) August 15, 2019
O'Rourke says he's taking his campaign not to IA and NH — but instead to places where Trump "has been terrorizing" communities.
"Anyone who this president puts down, we'll do our best to lift up"
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) August 15, 2019
"If we do not wake up to this threat, then we as a country will die in our sleep," Beto O'Rourke says of racism in Trump era. https://t.co/3DcPPWs6tt pic.twitter.com/pPqloAN5CT
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 15, 2019
But O’Rourke also pledged to avoid the Iowa State Fair in the future. Why? To save “democracy” from Trump, or something:
O’Rourke suggests he'll skip events like the Iowa State Fair moving forward: “I also cannot go back to that.”
“To those places where Donald Trump has been terrorizing and terrifying and demeaning our fellow Americans, that’s where you will find me in this campaign,” he says.
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) August 15, 2019
O'Rourke says he wants to take the campaign fight directly to "those places that Donald Trump has been terrorizing and demeaning" like Mississippi where we saw ICE raids. Not necessarily places like the IA State fair, "you know, corn dogs and ferris wheels."
— Kailani Koenig (@kailanikm) August 15, 2019
The Trump campaign fired back:
Trump campaign blasts relaunch. "@BetoORourke is now using the tragedy in his hometown to bolster his struggling presidential bid….Texans know O’Rourke is more interested in his own personal political gain than ..in helping his hometown heal,” Trump Victory spox Samantha Cotten
— Todd J. Gillman (@toddgillman) August 15, 2019
More from Team Trump re Beto: "O'Rourke’s second campaign reboot is likely to end up failing just like his first. Texans know O’Rourke is more interested in his own personal political gain than he is in helping his hometown heal.” #2020 #Beto2020
— kherman (@kherman) August 15, 2019
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