- Beto O'Rourke doesn't regret confronting Gov. Greg Abbott at a Uvalde press conference in May.
- He accused Abbott of "doing nothing" a day after 21 people were killed at Robb Elementary.
Beto O'Rourke stands by his decision to publicly confront Texas Gov. Greg Abbott about gun control following the Uvalde school shooting.
He made the comments at the Texas Tribune Festival in the city of Austin on Saturday, Fox News reported, and blasted Abbott for attending a political fundraiser hours after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
"Not until the next day does he show up in Uvalde, and the first words out of his mouth… He said, 'It could have been worse,' to those families of those children," O'Rouke said, per Fox News.
Earlier this year, O' Rourke interrupted Abbott and other high-ranking Texas officials at a press conference a day after the May 24 tragedy, telling them, "you are doing nothing."
"You are offering us nothing. You said this was not predictable," he added. "This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything."
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin responded to O'Rourke, calling him a "sick son of a bitch," as Insider previously reported. O'Rourke was escorted out of the building and continued to reprimand Abbott's lack of support to ban AR-15s.
The Democrat, who has been firm on his stance against AR-15s and AK-47s, doubled down on his actions, adding that he was standing up for the families who were impacted by the shooting.
"So no, I don't regret being there. I wanted to fight for those families in Uvalde, for our families across the state. The best time to stop the next school shooting is right now, and that means at a minimum, raising the age of purchase for an AR-15 to 21 years," O'Rourke said Saturday, Fox News reported.