Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper asked 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) if he thought it was “racist to vote for President Trump in 2020?”
Partial transcript as follows:
TAPPER: You said to me last week that you thought President Trump was a white nationalist. I just wonder, sir, President Trump won your home state of Texas by nine points, almost 63 million Americans voted for him, do you think it is racist to vote for President Trump in 2020?
O’ROURKE: I think it is really hard. After everything that we’ve seen from his time as a candidate in 2016, to his repeated warnings of invasions to his repeated calls to send them back, sending back people who are U.S. citizens, sending back people who were born in this country, his description of white nationalists and Klansmen and neo-Nazis as very fine people and warning of Muslims being and attempting to ban them from entry into this country and his transgender troop ban and his attack on anyone who does not look like or pray like or love like a majority of the country, yes Donald Trump is dangerous to the future of America and will destroy what makes us so unique and so special and the genius that we represent to ourselves and to the rest of the world. And so I appeal to my fellow Americans to choose a candidate who will bring this very divided and highly polarized country together, who will work on the issues before us, whether it is health care or an economy that includes everyone or immigration or confronting climate before it is too late and doing it in a way that speaks to the best of us. That is ambitious, that is not fearful of the future and does not try to divide us on our differences. That is exactly what Donald Trump is doing right now.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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