In the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that is now suspected to have been racially motivated — and, to a lesser extent, an inexplicable mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio — countless Democrats and media figures immediately sought to lay sole blame for the multiple fatalities not on the murderous gunmen, but on President Donald Trump and his supposedly “racist” and “anti-immigrant” rhetoric.
Chief among those critics is former Democratic Texas congressman, El Paso native, and 2020 presidential contender Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, who has been nearly ubiquitous in TV appearances in which he profanely denounces the president for his words and blame him for the shooting deaths.
But after several days of divisive and partisan sniping from O’Rourke, President Trump finally hit back on Tuesday with a tweet slamming O’Rourke and urging him to “be quiet” as a sign of respect for the victims and survivors.
Trump’s Tweet
The Hill reported that it was announced earlier in the week that, despite sanctimonious outrage from politicians like O’Rourke, President Trump would travel to Dayton and El Paso on Wednesday to meet with first responders, hospital personnel, survivors, and victims’ families. In response to that announcement, O’Rourke announced his own counter-event in El Paso to coincide with the president’s visit.
That move seemingly compelled Trump to tweet, “Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed by polling at 1% in the Democrat Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement – & be quiet!”
Trump’s tweet ripped O’Rourke for his ridiculous nickname, recalled the huge disparity in crowd size during dueling rallies in El Paso in February and slammed him for his poor performance thus far in the Democratic Party primary race.
Perhaps most importantly, the president attempted to remind O’Rourke of the numerous civilians and officials in El Paso who have asked everyone to temporarily set political differences aside so people can properly grieve and mourn the dead.
Shameless politicking
Unfortunately, O’Rourke has most definitely chosen to not heed those pleas for unity and grace and most certainly will not “be quiet.”
In response to Trump’s tweet, O’Rourke fired back with an incendiary message of his own and said, “22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism. El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I.”
O’Rourke’s unfair characterization of the El Paso shooting as being “inspired” by Trump’s purported racism is but one of dozens of examples of absurdly over-the-top accusations and smears that the former congressman launched in the direction of the president over the past few days.
The “1%” candidate repeatedly cursed on live TV in his hate-filled diatribes against the president, called him every descriptive term ending in -ist or -phobic, compared him to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for the umpteenth time, and generally sought to demonize him and, yes, incite more hate and even “action” against him.
It would be nice if our politicians could respect the wishes of the good people of El Paso and put political differences on mute — if only for a few days — so the survivors and victims’ families can be adequately comforted and have their immediate needs met. Sadly, some on the left are so consumed with their hatred for Trump that they simply can’t and won’t allow that to happen.