O’Rourke: The ‘invitation to hate openly, unapologetically’ has contributed to current environment

Democratic Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke slammed President Trump’s rhetoric in a new interview, saying it contributed to the divisive political climate in America. 

“The invitation to hate openly, unapologetically, to call Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, to call asylum seekers animals, an infestation, to describe white nationalists, Klansmen, neo-Nazis as very fine people, that has certainly contributed to the environment that we see in this country at this moment,” the congressman said on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” at the University of Houston.

{mosads}“We are more than the president of the United States, the current occupant of the White House. I know that from traveling the state and finding Republicans who may have voted for Trump who don’t approve of this kind of behavior, this kind of rhetoric,” he added.

O’Rourke, who is trying to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in the ruby-red Lone Star State, has walked a tightrope of criticizing the president when the two disagree but not making opposition to Trump the centerpiece of his campaign in a state the president won by 9 points in 2016. 

However, he did criticize Trump for calling the mainstream media “fake news” after multiple explosive devices were sent to CNN, as well as prominent Democrats, amid a string of mail bombs last week.

“This idea fronted by the president that somehow the press are the enemy of the people, reinforced by him tweeting out images of a reporter being hit by a train, body-slammed in a wrestling ring, is incitement to violence. I don’t know any other way to call it. That undermines an essential pillar of the American democracy. … Nothing guarantees us a 243rd or a 244th year, unless all of us stand up for the institutions that make us so strong in the first place.  So, I think we need to vigorously defend the freedom of the press,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke’s comments followed a wave of criticism following a Saturday shooting at a Pittsburgh-area synagogue that left 11 dead, and the mailing of the explosive devices to prominent Democrats, former intelligence officials and CNN, all of whom have been critical of and criticized by the president.

The White House denied any culpability in the incidents, with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying Monday, “I think it’s irresponsible to blame the president and members of his administration for those heinous acts.”

Cruz leads O’Rourke by approximately 7 percentage points, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent polling.