Beto O’Rourke: ‘Racist’ Trump Is ‘Giving People Permission to Do’ Mass Shootings

The morning after a horrific mass shooting in El Paso that left at least 20 dead, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke blamed the massacre on President Trump’s xenophobic and racist rhetoric, claiming the president is “giving people permission” to carry out white nationalist terrorism.

“We have to acknowledge the hatred, the open racism that we’re seeing,” O’Rourke exclaimed. “There is an environment of it in the United States. We see it on Fox News, we — we see it on the internet and we see it from our commander-in-chief. He is encouraging this. He doesn’t just tolerate it, he encourages it, calling immigrants rapists and criminals and seeking to ban all people of one religion.”

Referencing a moment in the last primary debate, Tapper asked O’Rourke if he agreed with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee that the president is a white nationalist.

“Yes, I do,” O’Rourke said, further claiming that Trump is an “open avowed racist and encouraging more racism in this country.”

Read the rest of the piece at The Daily Beast.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.