
With his presidential aspirations all but dead in the water despite his best efforts at the politics of outrage, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is now resorting to the shock value of vulgarity to get the attention of voters.
As a shooting unfolded in his home state of Texas, coming just weeks after the El Paso shooting, O’Rourke dropped an F-bomb while speaking at a campaign stop in Fairfax Station, Va.
“Not sure how many gunmen. Not sure how many people have been shot. Don’t know how many people have been killed [or] the condition of those who have survived,” he told supporters. “Don’t know what the motivation is. Do not yet know the firearms that were used or how they acquired them.”
“But we do know this is f*cked up,” O’Rourke continued. “We do know that this has to stop in our country. There is no reason that we have to accept this as our fortune, as our future, as our fate.”
The Democratic candidate’s performance was rewarded with a spot on CNN, where O’Rourke gave an encore performance — with an appropriately timed bleep.
“The rhetoric that we’ve used — the thoughts and prayers that you just referred to — it has done nothing to stop the epidemic of gun violence to protect our kids, our families, our fellow Americans in public places — at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where 22 were killed, in Sutherland Springs — in a church,” he told CNN anchor Dana Bash. “One or two a day all over this country; 100 killed daily in the United States of America. We’re averaging about 300 mass shootings a year. No other country comes close.”
“So yes, this is f*cked up,” he added. “If we don’t call it out for what it is, if we’re not able to speak clearly, if we’re not able to act decisively, then we will continue to have this kind of bloodshed in America, and I cannot accept that.”
But O’Rourke was only just beginning to capitalize on the tragedies, as his campaign seized on the vulgar quote to peddle T-shirts.
The campaign ploy — the shirts boldly proclaim “Beto for America” — was justified by claiming all of the proceeds would be given to the gun-control groups Mom’s Demand Action and March for Our Lives.
New in the store…
100% of the proceeds will benefit @MomsDemand and @AMarch4OurLives.
This is fucked up. We can change it. https://t.co/PFRWFCypAl pic.twitter.com/Us1V4mz1cf
— Team Beto (@TeamBeto) September 1, 2019
As shameless as the ploy may be, it doesn’t represent the worst “Beto” has to offer, as he is also calling for the government to confiscate weapons from Americans — O’Rourke tries to soften this by calling it a mandatory “buy-back” program, although he fails to grasp that the government can’t “buy back” what they never owned.
O’Rourke’s vulgarity also earned him a spot on MSNBC, where he cited a tweet from Rabbi Latz, which read: “Profanity is not the f-bomb. What is profane is a 17 month-old baby being shot in the face.”
Profanity is not the f-bomb. What is profane is a 17 month-old baby being shot in the face. pic.twitter.com/mUuK12Rxbp
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 1, 2019
This coming from the camp that routinely ignores gun violence in Chicago, where any given weekend may compete with a single mass shooting.
But in the same segment, the struggling presidential candidate called for mandatory confiscation of weapons.
“Let’s speak clearly and bluntly and take decisive action,” O’Rourke said. “Universal background checks, red flag laws, ending the sales of weapons of war but also importantly and politically difficult to say, buy those weapons of war back. Mandate that, not voluntarily. Let’s be clear with our fellow Americans. No place for an AK-47 or an AR-15 on the streets of our communities.”
This extreme action that defies the very founding of the United States is justified by playing word games. Inaccurately describing guns as “weapons of war” and “assault weapons” — both of which are already banned — O’Rourke is also calling on forcing American citizens to surrender their weapons on the stump.
A reporter asked Beto in Charlottesville how he’d reassure people afraid the gov’t would take their assault weapons away.
“I want to be really clear that that’s exactly what we are going to do,” he said. If you own an AK-47 or AR-15, “you’ll have to sell them to the government.”
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) August 31, 2019
Here’s a quick sampling of responses from Twitter, beginning with Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume, who reminded Beto that his “sewermouth” doesn’t make his argument any stronger:
As if his sewermouth will somehow give his argument more power. https://t.co/7WZZyL3rmu
— Brit Hume (@brithume) September 1, 2019
How is he even a thing? Seriously. I guess the DNC is trying to get the beta male population here? There are quite a lot of them sadly. So I guess not a terrible strategy.
— S T E A K [?] S T O I C (@SteakStoic) September 2, 2019
Profanity won’t make you cool, loser.
— Nick Searcy, INTERNATIONAL FILM & TELEVISION STAR (@yesnicksearcy) September 1, 2019
Someone translate “Molon labe” into Furry
— The Original SPQR in 3D (@SPQRzilla) August 31, 2019
Amazing how many “liberals” are actually authoritarians at heart.
— rpursuit (@Winniethewoo6) August 31, 2019
Impossible! I’ve been assured by my Democratic friends that “no one wants to take away my guns!”
— Chuck Vipperman (@ChuckVipperman) August 31, 2019
Thanks for the heads up! Good to know that @BetoORourke is in line with the other @TheDemocrats candidates; they ARE coming for our guns.
????
— Steve F (@Ghutsch) August 31, 2019
didn’t Hitler do this
— ?????? (@ravewraith) August 31, 2019
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