Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson ripped Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke after he derailed a Wednesday press conference held by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
O’Rourke confronted Abbott inside an auditorium in Uvalde, Texas, accusing him of bearing responsibility for the shooting and “doing nothing” to prevent gun violence. The gubernatorial candidate was met with backlash from officials and lawmakers onstage before being escorted out of the conference by security.
“Beto O’Rourke, who’s running for office again because he has no marketable skills, just stormed a press conference to berate Texas officials,” Carlson said. “He did this in front of the families of some of yesterday’s victims.”
The footage showed O’Rourke approaching the stage telling the governor and other Texas officials that they are “doing nothing.”
“Sit down and don’t pull a stunt,” Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said. “Sit down and don’t play this stuff.”
“You’re out of line and an embarrassment,” Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said.
Carlson mocked O’Rourke for the confrontation by comparing him to the “lunatics from the Westboro Baptist Church.”
“Come on, that’s saving lives? That’s making this a better country?” Carlson reacted. “Beto O’Rourke sounds like one of those lunatics from the Westboro Baptist Church who gets off making his scene. But that’s essentially the answer we’ve gotten to how to fix and prevent what happened in Uvalde. Please, anyone who talks like this should be quiet for a minute and leave it to everybody else to figure out why this is happening.”
After being escorted from the conference, O’Rourke
told reporters in the parking lot that Abbott “bragged” about lifting gun restrictions in the aftermath of the 2019 El Paso mass shooting that left at least 20 people dead and further criticized the governor for his planned speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Leadership Forum in Houston this upcoming Friday.
“He’s scheduled to speak at the NRA convention this Friday in Houston, Texas, just days after these kids were slaughtered right here in Uvalde,” O’Rourke said. “After they were slaughtered at Santa Fe High School, at Sutherland Springs, in Midland Odessa, in El Paso, Texas. Five of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history right here in this state in the last five years, he was governor for every single one of them.”
“And after every one of these he holds a press conference just like this, and I wish to hell when he came to El Paso someone would have stood up and held him to account and confronted him and shocked the conscience of the state to do something, because if we do nothing, we will continue to see this.”
Abbott
said at the conference that gun laws in Chicago and New York have proven to be ineffective in preventing shootings and instead will focus on mental health.
