Beto O’Rourke makes grandstand play

Beto O’Rourke, Democratic Party candidate for Governor of Texas, made a grandstand play for votes yesterday. He interrupted a press conference in Uvalde, Texas, to denounce Governor Greg Abbott for “doing nothing.” And as usual, people reacted according to their own agendas.

Beto O’Rourke tries to steal the stage

Gov. Abbott called the press conference to address the Texas school shooting that claimed 21 innocent lives. Details on what happened there come from The Texas Tribune, Independent Journal Review, the Todd Starnes newsletter, Patriot Newsfeed, Red Right Daily, and two stories from Fox News.

Oddly enough, a reporter from CBS News gives the most honest assessment of what Beto O’Rourke did. Reporter Janet Shamlian said this:

Well, I did see what happened just before the press conference started. I was in the third row on the aisle, and there were two people across the aisle from me. And a moment before the press conference started, they got up from their seats when Beto walked in, so they were seat holders for him. Then, he sat down. So his presence wasn’t really noticed in the 15 or 20 minutes that people were gathering inside, because he was not in the room. This seems something very clearly from Beto O’Rourke wanting to confront the governor at this moment.

In other words, Beto O’Rourke staged the scene. But almost worse than that, he had help. Janet Shamlian said so: two people actually saved him a seat near the front row. Then he walked in, at the last minute, and went into his circus act.

It’s all on video

This YouTube video shows him standing up and interrupting Governor Abbott.

One can’t hear him speak, because he had no microphone. So one can only hear the responses from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, and Senator Ted Cruz.

Beto: You are doing nothing.

Patrick: Excuse me … excuse me …

Beto: You are offering up nothing. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

Cruz: Sit down and don’t play this stunt.

Beto: (unintelligible)

Patrick: You are out of line and an embarrassment.

Beto: (more words)

McLaughlin: Sir, you are out of line. [Repeated three times.] Please leave this auditorium. I can’t believe that you’re a sick [SOB] that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.

While this crosstalk has been happening, you can see a Uvalde Police officer in a blue uniform politely telling O’Rourke to leave. But he will not leave. So the officer escorts him from the room. But before he leaves, he turns and throws this Parthian shot at Abbott:

This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen. Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will be continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.

What’s more, he continues his tirade outside.

Responses to Beto O’Rourke

Immediately after that outburst, Governor Abbott took the microphone again to chide people who play politics while people are mourning.

Dana Loesch, famous for speaking for the National Rifle Association, basically said one word: “Wow.”

Tom Elliott blamed the national media as much as Beto, for he said they enabled him. Which they have.

But of course Beto O’Rourke has his cheerleaders in the House of Representatives, though mostly from out of Texas. Rep. Dean Philllips (D-Minn.) tweeted “Speaking truth to power” and a picture of the Tiananmen Square protester blocking tanks. He or Twitter Moderation has since deleted that tweet.

But this tweet from Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) is still active:

So is this from Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.):

This tweet from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) might or might not still be active. CNAV quotes it here:

There is no such thing as being “pro-life” while supporting laws that let children be shot in their schools, elders in grocery stores, worshippers in their houses of faith, survivors by abusers, or anyone in a crowded place. It is an idolatry of violence. And it must end.

A bereaved father from another tragedy speaks out

Just so everyone knows, Mr. Andrew Pollack, who lost a daughter in the Parkland, Florida school shooting four years ago, has a suggestion of his own. But he does not suggest confiscating guns.

Nor does he appreciate the “March for Our Lives” movement fund-raising to confiscate guns, in his dead daughter’s name.

That’s right: he said, “Don’t give them a dime.”

Mr. Pollack said more in an interview with Joe Pags.

As you can see, Andrew Pollack wants to solve the problem. But he doesn’t want to confiscate guns. Instead he wants better security at our schools. This goes to what the resident of Buffalo said, after the grocery store shooting in that city. “AOC” didn’t mention that, because it runs counter to her narrative and agenda.

Clearly the Democratic Party has doubled down on the notion that no person, except:

• A law-enforcement officer,
• An active-duty military service member,
• A Very Important Person, or
• The bodyguard of such person,

shall discharge, carry, own, or so much as touch a firearm.

Before you ask, the Second Amendment, to them, is a relic of our past. So we must amend or decide it away.

Will Beto O’Rourke benefit from this?

Of course Beto O’Rourke staged the scene, and will campaign on gun control. He has done this before. But all the Travis County transplants won’t help him. Even fellow Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee has said nothing beyond an understandably emotional moment the day the shooting happened.

So, at least on her official Twitter account, she has shown better sense than Beto O’Rourke has. Furthermore, she has shown enough sense not to join the cacophony of cheerleading of him in the House. Because she knows, as well as Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), that no one has the votes for gun control. And she especially knows that the people of Texas will not support it. So they certainly will not support someone who makes a grandstand play, having people save him a seat, and all the rest of it.

If the Texas Democratic Party had a lick of sense, they’d revoke his nomination and nominate Sheila Jackson Lee instead. But they won’t. Not just because they don’t have a procedure for that, for where there’s a will, there’s a way. But there isn’t a will. They’ve doubled down on gun control, and Beto O’Rourke is going to drag them down.