The hosts of hit daytime talk show The View were in agreement after they expressed shock and also support for the actions of former Rep. Beto O’Rourke following a deadly school shooting in Texas this week.
O’Rourke, who had previously served as a Congressman for El Paso, Texas, tried to storm the stage during a speech by Texas Governor Abbott addressing the mass shooting. Beto, real name Robert O’Rourke, is running against Abbott as a Democrat for the governorship of Texas currently
Host Whoopi Goldberg started out the conversation, asking if the actions Beto took were appropriate political dialogue or would be dismissed as “theater. “Is this public confrontation the only way to get some politicians to wake up and maybe talk about gun safety,” Goldberg questioned. “Or will people just write this off as political theater and it’s just another day?”
Another co-host, Sara Haines, responded to Goldberg’s prompt, taking it further by suggesting Governor Abbott should be scared to be in public after the shooting, suggesting that it was his fault.
“I would never show my face if I were Gov. Abbott after what happened,” Haines said. She continued, “To hold a whole press conference about prayer and mourning the children, I’m guessing that grief is really quickly going to turn to anger if it hasn’t already and they’re gonna want to see some action.
Despite her support, even Haines seemed cautious to throw her support behind O’Rourke’s actions in full, suggesting they may have been simply “performative.” Haines said, “And to me, Beto O’Rourke, whether it’s performative or not, marched in there and calmly said, ‘enough is enough.’”
At that point another host, Sunny Hostin, who oftentimes leans the most liberal of the group, took the opportunity to suggest that conservatives are trying to distract the country by being angry with Beto before also blaming the shooting on new legislation Abbott recently signed which allowed the gunman to purchase the weapons.
“They seemed angrier with Beto O’Rourke than they were at the massacre of 19 children and two fourth grade teachers. They were yelling at him. I’d like to see some of that energy around gun safety. I was so shocked that they were so angry at what he was saying and he was saying the right things. It was totally predictable, I mean Gov. Abbott was the person that changed the age of owning a gun from 21 to 18.
It wasn’t long, however, before her ire turned on all conservatives, suggesting the shooting was predictable and the real issue was not the mental illness of the shooter, but the guns themselves.
“This was completely predictable, it’s cyclical, our country’s the only country that has this problem,” Hostin declared. “They’re trying to blame it on mental illness. Let’s remember that people that have mental illness are 10 times more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators of crime. I am so sick of this freaking narrative about mental illness.”
It’s unlikely that the left will let this debate die down anytime soon. Between the Texas elementary school shooting being the 2nd worst of it’s kind in American history and the upcoming midterm elections, this discussion is likely to continue for months.
Do you think any actions should be taken to try and prevent future school shootings? What do you think the federal government should do, if anything?
