Bad word or good timing? Beto O’Rourke spins 180°, shouts at Abbott backer over AR-15s
(Revised Aug. 12 to reflect new reporting by Mineral Wells Area News.)
Beto O’Rourke unleashed Texas Democrats’ pent-up rage Wednesday night.
Shouting in a moment of campaign passion, he punctuated Democrats’ frustration at 20 solid years of losing.
It was O’Rourke drama at his best. His eyes flashed with anger.
But — was it real?
Only 4 minutes into a packed campaign rally in the ballroom atop the Crazy Water Hotel, an indignant O’Rourke spun and blurted a mother of a bad word toward someone who seemed to chuckle when O’Rourke vividly described the AR-15 used in the Uvalde school massacre.
When the Democrat bent a knee like a marksman kneeling, then pointed a finger into the crowd and said the AR-15 infantry rifle was designed for “Vietnam” troops to “penetrate an enemy soldier’s helmet at 500 feet,” a snicker went up from across the ballroom behind him.
According to the campaign’s own video on the Facebook page for O’Rourke’s monthlong whistle-stop “Drive for Texas” tour, O’Rourke stood and turned 180 degrees.
“It may be funny to you, [expletive]! But it’s not funny to me!” he replied, pointing a finger toward the back of the crowd as a few hundred Parker and Palo Pinto County Democrats cheered wildly.
Mineral Wells gun dealer Ron Warren of Aledo, owner of An Eye For An Eye Guns and Ammo, told Mineral Wells Area News that he laughed at O”Rourke’s description of the gun, not over the Uvalde shooting. Warren was standing alongside a handful of people holding signs for Gov. Greg Abbott.
On the eve of appearances in Fort Worth on Thursday and Friday, O’Rourke’s ferocity sparked a national social media firestorm that produced tens of millions of video replays, news reports, TikTok tributes and a brief new round of 2018-style Betomania from around the world.
Maybe O’Rourke saw the people stand with Abbott signs and planned to silence them early, before he got into the meat of a policy-driven talk.
But this wasn’t the first time O’Rourke has responded almost exactly the same way at that exact point in his speech.
On July 21 in Snyder, as reported by Patrick Svitek in the Texas Tribune, O’Rourke shouted back to somebody in the audience who laughed at his gun comment, “Might be funny to you. It isn’t to me.”
After the clapback in Mineral Wells, O’Rourke went on to talk another hour about education, expanding Medicaid eligibility, improving the energy grid, equalizing road funding, legalizing marijuana — even about how ranchers are exploited by big slaughterhouses.
But some Republicans in neighboring Wise County, where O’Rourke stopped in Decatur on Thursday, had already posted on social media that Abbott volunteers are specifically asked to protest only outside O’Rourke’s rallies.
They’re not supposed to go inside and risk becoming part of the show.
As it happens, O’Rourke stood with his back to Warren and those carrying Abbott signs. Whether by accident or plan, he could theatrically rise and pivot with a flourish.
For O’Rourke, it was a breakthrough into national media after weeks of crisscrossing West Texas in what is basically a daily reality show at facebook.com/betoorourke.
Some of the videos were full of Texas roadside scenery. They look more like he’s trying out for a co-host role on Bob Phillips’ “Texas Country Reporter.”
But in Mineral Wells, the El Paso Democrat was trying to drive up his statewide support and national contributions before Texans mostly forget about politics and turn to football.
As a driver in a sound truck across Oak Street blasted loudspeaker commands like “Leave town!” and “Don’t vote for him!” the Abbott sign-wavers stood mostly quietly in one corner of the Crazy Water’s top-floor ballroom.
One older man next to Warren holding an Abbott sign and wearing a black leather jacket drew particular police attention during the event, according to video posted by an O’Rourke supporter.
There was already worry about guns in the crowd. An attendee was seen with a not-quite-concealed handgun and was asked by police to take it back outside. The hotel bans weapons, Mineral Wells City Manager and Police Chief Dean Sullivan said.
O’Rourke’s rallies are open to anyone, a campaign spokesman said, and several attendees in other cities have come armed with handguns or rifles.
Several armed attendees have asked questions during rallies or been singled out by O’Rourke. But not cussed out.
So if you bet that Aug. 10 would be the day O’Rourke would drop the first bad word, you win.
It’s probably not the last.
This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 10:01 AM.
