Democratic 2020 candidate Beto O’Rourke joked over the weekend about threatening to hurt a kitten,”Miss Whiskers,” in order to gain more campaign donations.
Speaking on stage at the Texas Tribune Festival, O’Rourke joked that he might need to bring a kitten on Facebook Live and threaten that something might happen to it to get donors.
Campaigns are really upping the ante for End of Quarter fundraising. I could do a Facebook Live with a kitten and say, “We don’t want anything to happen to Miss Whiskers so send your $5.” I’m not gonna do that, but if you want to donate, here’s a link: https://t.co/5Qz24HzZwN pic.twitter.com/otBcHuyTu9
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 28, 2019
“You know, it’s kind of raising the ante or the bar for how we compete for those dollars,” he said. “I mean, I could maybe do a Facebook live stream with a kitten and, say, you know, ‘Now, we don’t want anything to happen to the kitten so, uh, you know, send your $5 or $10 or $15 in now. And, you know, Miss Whiskers is going to be fine.'”
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker replied to O’Rourke’s tweet saying, “leave the kittens out of it, bro.”
Leave the kittens out of it, bro
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 28, 2019
“To be clear—we’re not going to do that,” he clarified, adding, “I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.”
The Texas politician has a strange sense of humor. While he was a teenager, he wrote a poem called “The Song of the Cow” that includes lyrics such as, “Wax my a**” and “Scrub my balls.” (RELATED: Uncovered Footage Reveals Beto O’Rourke Rocking Out In Skin-Tight Sheep Costume)
O’Rourke also wrote fictional stories about driving a car into a group of children.
In another instance he was widely mocked for, O’Rourke live streamed his teeth cleaning, leading Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw to call him “weird.”