Beto O'Rourke slams Donald Trump on government shutdown as talk about 2020 run intensifies
AUSTIN – Congressman Beto O'Rourke has delivered a blistering rebuke of President Donald Trump over the government shutdown, calling on Americans to rise above the partisan bickering or risk tearing apart of the fabric of the nation.
"If ever there was a time to put country over party it is now," O'Rourke wrote in an essay on medium.com. "This is not about a wall, it’s not about border security, it’s not about Democrats and Republicans. It’s about the future of our country – whether our children and grandchildren will thank us or blame us."
The critique, titled "Closed Until Further Notice," intensified speculation that the El Paso Democrat is planning a 2020 presidential run and even won praise from the strategist who ran the U.S. Senate race to defeat O'Rourke last month.
More: Will Beto run in 2020? Question looms large
"I’ve read every single word that (O'Rourke) has uttered in public life. He has never, and I mean never, talked like this," veteran Republican operative Jeff Roe, who managed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign to an unlikely 2.6 percentage point victory, said in a tweet.
The tweet goes on to warn such better established Democratic national figures as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey and California's Kamala Harris that they'd "better pull your britches up tight and buckle your shoes because @BetoORourke is running" for president.
I’ve read every single word that @BetoORourke has uttered in public life. He has never, and I mean never, talked like this. @KamalaHarris @SenSanders @JoeBiden and @CoryBooker you better pull your britches up tight and buckle your shoes because @BetoORourke is running for POTUS https://t.co/qVER96J4FL
— Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) December 23, 2018
Since the essay was posted Saturday, the link has captured more than 30,000 Twitter "likes" or retweets and nearly 18,000 Facebook "likes" or shares.
O'Rourke, who leaves office Jan. 3, makes no direct mention of any plans for his political future. But he does call on Congress to pass at least a short-term funding bill to reopen the government and to reject Trump's insistence on a $5 billion appropriation to begin construction of his promised wall on the border with Mexico.
And O'Rourke places the blame for the shutdown squarely on the president's shoulders, accusing him of seeking a partisan advantage at the nation's expense.
More: 3 ways the government shutdown may impact you
"If there were ever a man to exploit this precarious moment for our country and our form of government, it’s Trump," O'Rourke wrote. "Sending 5,400 troops to U.S. border communities during the midterm elections. Organizing Border Patrol “crowd control” exercises in El Paso on election day. Defying our laws by taking children from their parents, keeping kids in tent camps, turning back refugees at our ports."
It's also clear that the three-term congressman has gained the president's attention. When O'Rourke's name came up during a White House event on Friday as a possible challenger, Trump mocked him as someone who couldn't win a race in his own home state.
“I thought you were supposed to win before you run for president,” Trump told reporters.
O'Rourke did lose, but by a closer margin than any Texas Democrat running statewide in two decades. His fundraising prowess, hauling in some $80 million in the race against Cruz, helped vault him to the national stage.
Just after the networks called the Senate race for Cruz on Nov. 6, Roe huddled with reporters covering Cruz's Election Night celebration and predicted a White House run for O'Rourke, who began the 2018 campaign as a little-known outsider who'd been given almost no chance for success.
""He grew in the campaign, he grew as a candidate," Roe said while Cruz supporters were reveling in what proved to be a hard-won victory. "And I can't imagine that he doesn't take that on the road."
"I don't predict Democrat politics," he added. "But the fervent following that he has nationally, no one else compares to him on their side. No one does. He is in a league of his own in the Democrat party. And if he doesn't use that to run for president, I don't know what you do with it."
John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Beto O'Rourke slams Donald Trump on government shutdown as talk about 2020 run intensifies
