Former congressman Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference being headed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday to plead with the Governor for gun control to be put in place. Several lawmakers in attendance started shouting insults at O’Rourke for the stunt.
Watch the tense moment below.
Gov. Greg Abbott was speaking to the crowd and had just finished his remarks and was introducing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick when O’Rourke ran to the stage and started dressing him down for his response to the massacre. O’Rourke is challenging Abbott in November for the Governor seat.
The former congressman and presidential candidate said that the shooting was “predictable and preventable.”
He then accused the the Governor of “doing nothing.”
Liberal pundits shouted support for O’Rourke on Twitter for the stunt, but many conservatives saw it as just a chance for the candidate to grab press attention.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin was visibly angry and rousted O’Rourke for his stunt. He told him that he was “out of line’ and called him a “sick son of a b*tch” for making the conference a “political issue.”
O’Rourke was escorted out of the press conference, but before leaving he turned and told the crowd: “This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen. Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
O’Rourke continued to attack the Governor and told reporters outside that it’s time for more “action” on top of “prayers.” He said that Abbott did not support universal background checks, red flag laws, gun storage laws, and a ban on AR-15 and AK-47 firearms.
“The governor talks about mental health,” O’Rourke told reporters. “It’s insane that we allow an 18-year-old to go in and buy an AR-15. What the hell did we think he was going to do with that? This one is on us.”
A year before the shooting, the Republican legislature in Texas voted to remove permit-less carry that required licensing, background checks and training for handgun owners. Abbot signed the bill. The lone star state is known for it’s pro-second amendment bent, but many Democrats such as O’Rourke are making noise to change this after the shooting on Tuesday.
O’Rourke asked Abbott on Twitter yesterday to withdraw from the NRA convention being held in Texas this weekend.
Do you think Beto O’Rourke has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming Governor of Texas? Let us know you thoughts.
