Yahoo Movies Beto O'Rourke Confronts Texas Governor Greg Abbott at Uvalde Shooting Press Conference
Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke interrupted the state governor’s press conference on Wednesday, May 25, one day after a mass shooting left 21 people dead in Uvalde, Texas.
Video taken by Carlos Eduardo Espina shows O’Rourke approaching the stage where Texas Gov Greg Abbott was holding a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
“Governor, I have to say something,” O’Rourke can be heard saying in the footage. “The time you needed to have stopped this was after Santa Fe High School.”
Abbott and others onstage engaged verbally with O’Rourke, telling him to “sit down” and “leave,” with one calling him a “sick son of a b***h.”
“You’re doing nothing. You’re all doing nothing … this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything,” O’Rourke said.
“This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen,” O’Rourke said as he was ushered away from the stage. “Somebody needs to stand up for the children of the state, or they will continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
The press conference was streamed live to the governor’s Facebook page for only 35 seconds before the stream ended.
O’Rourke, a Democrat, is running against Abbott, a Republican, in Texas’s gubernatorial election in November.
Nineteen students and two adults were killed on May 24 after an 18-year-old local resident pushed past officers and barricaded himself inside a fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to officials’ latest updates. Credit: Carlos Eduardo Espina via Storyful
Video Transcript
BETO O'ROURKE: Governor Abbott, I have to say something. The time for you to have stopped this was after Santa Fe High School.
TED CRUZ: Sit down.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: --was after El Paso.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Let him talk.
BETO O'ROURKE: You are doing nothing.
- No.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: You said this was not predictable? This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything--
DON MCLAUGHLIN: Sir, you're out of line.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) Sir, you are out of line.
BETO O'ROURKE: I will stand up for the kids--
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) Sir, you are out of line. Please leave this auditorium.
BETO O'ROURKE: --to stop this from happening again.
- Sir, you can exit.
- Get out of here.
- You can exit.
- Get out of here.
DON MCLAUGHLIN: I can't believe you're a sick son of a bitch--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: This is on you.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DON MCLAUGHLIN: --like this to make a political issue.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- This is not the place to do that.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: This is on you until you choose to do something different.
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) It's on assholes like you. Why don't you--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed, just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- (YELLING) What happened to the First Amendment?
BETO O'ROURKE: Governor Abbott, I have to say something. The time for you to have stopped this was after Santa Fe High School.
TED CRUZ: Sit down.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: --was after El Paso.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Let him talk.
BETO O'ROURKE: You are doing nothing.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- No.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: You said this was not predictable? This is totally predictable when you choose--
DON MCLAUGHLIN: Sir, you're out of line.
BETO O'ROURKE: --not to do anything--
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) Sir, you are out of line.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: I will stand up for the kids of this state to stop this from happening again.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- You can exit.
- Get out of here.
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) I can't believe you're a sick son of a bitch--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: This is on you--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DON MCLAUGHLIN: --like this to make a political issue.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- This is not the place to do that.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: This is on you until you choose to do something.
DON MCLAUGHLIN: (YELLING) It's on assholes like you. Why don't you--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
BETO O'ROURKE: Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed, just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- (YELLING) What happened to the First Amendment?
