Beto O’Rourke Accuses Texas Governor of ‘Doing Nothing’ During Press Conference

Former Representative Beto O’Rourke interrupted a information convention hosted by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday to accuse Republicans of “doing nothing” to handle gun violence within the aftermath of a taking pictures at an elementary faculty in Uvalde, Texas.

Mr. O’Rourke, an unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate who’s now working for governor, stood in entrance of a stage on the civic heart in Uvalde, 20 minutes into the information convention held by Mr. Abbott and officers, and shouted that the killings had been a “totally predictable” outcome of lax state and federal gun legal guidelines.

When Mr. Abbott’s allies noticed Mr. O’Rourke step ahead, they started shouting at him, with the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, hurling an obscenity, one other ordering the El Paso native to “Shut up!” and the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, demanding that he sit down.

Mr. O’Rourke, wearing his signature powder blue dress shirt, didn’t comply. Moments later, uniformed safety guards grabbed Mr. O’Rourke and pulled him away.

On his means out, he may very well be heard telling the viewers, some of whom had been jeering him whereas others yelled to let him converse, “Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state, or they will continue to be killed.”

Mr. O’Rourke’s transfer drew each scorn and reward.

To Republicans, he was exploiting a tragedy in entrance of the cameras as he tries to attract consideration to his longshot bid for governor. To Democrats, it confirmed a desperation of their efforts to push for gun management, as a former congressman resorted to a extra confrontational protest tactic. Republicans in Washington and crimson state capitals have efficiently blocked even modest gun management reforms within the wake of mass killings involving semiautomatic weapons, most of them legally bought.

“The time to stop this was after Santa Fe,” Mr. O’Rourke mentioned on the civic heart, referring to the Texas highschool taking pictures close to Houston in 2018. “The time to stop this was after El Paso,” he added, referring to the Texas mass taking pictures at a Walmart in 2019.

“The time to stop the next shooting is right now, and you are doing nothing. You are offering us nothing. You said this was not predictable — this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything,” he mentioned.

After Mr. O’Rourke left the room, Mr. Abbott criticized him for the outburst.

“There are family members who are crying as we speak,” he mentioned. “Think about the people who are hurt and help those who are hurt.”

Mr. Patrick added: “This is not a partisan issue. This is not a political issue.”

O’Rourke, in the meantime, continued to lament that Texas hadn’t achieved extra to handle gun violence after earlier mass shootings in El Paso, Midland, and Santa Fe. “