Beto: El Paso Shooter Was ‘Inspired to Kill by Our President’
2020 Democrat O'Rourke says shootings show 'just how dangerous Donald Trump is'
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During his opening statement at Thursday’s Democrat debate, presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke claimed that President Donald Trump was responsible for the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas last month.
Beto claimed, without evidence, that the horrific attack, that killed 22 people and injured 24 others, shows “just how dangerous Donald Trump is.”
The Democratic 2020 candidate went so far as to state that the El Paso shooter was “inspired to kill” by President Trump:
“On August 3rd, in El Paso, Texas, two things became crystal clear for me and I think produced a turning point for this country," Beto said.
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“The first is just how dangerous Donald Trump is - the cost and the consequence of his presidency," O'Rourke continued.
"A racism and violence that had long been a part of America was welcomed out into the open and directed to my hometown of El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed, dozens more grievously injured by a man carrying a weapon who should never have been able to buy in the first place - inspired to kill by our president.
“The second is how insufficient our politics is to meet the threat that we have right now.
"The bitterness, the pettiness, the smallness of the moment, the incentives to attack one another and try to make differences without distinctions, mountains out of mole hills.
"We have to be bigger. We have to see clearly, we have to speak honestly and we have to act decisively.
"That's what I want to do for you as president of the United States. Thank you.”
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Elsewhere during the ABC News Democratic debate, Beto was asked whether he is proposing to confiscate American’s guns, to which he answered, “I am.”
“Some of the stage have suggested a voluntary buy-back for guns in this country,” ABC’s David Muir asked.
"You have said, ‘Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell them to the government, all of them.’ You know that critics call this confiscation," Muir continued.
"Are you proposing taking away their guns and how would this work?
“I am," Beto responded, "if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield.
"If the high impact, high velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers,” O’Rourke continued.
“When we see that being used against children, and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa, there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time.”
“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” the former Texas congressman said.
"We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore."
Earlier this week, O'Rourke said that police won't need to go "door to door" to confiscate firearms from citizens as Americans will comply with his mandatory gun buyback plan and surrender their weapons willingly.
Speaking to a reporter in Manchester, New Hampshire last weekend, Texas Democrat Beto said he doesn’t think law enforcement would have to confiscate Americans’ guns because people would simply comply with the law.
Beto is calling for a change in the law that would mean law-abiding citizens would be legally forced to surrender their "assault rifles."
“I don’t see the law enforcement going door to door,” Beto told the Washington Examiner.
"I see Americans complying with the law."
