'You know the s--- he's been saying': Beto O'Rourke criticized the media's coverage of Trump in the wake of a mass shooting in El Paso

AP

• Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke criticized the media's coverage of President Donald Trump in emotional comments to a reporter the day after a mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.
• On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in an El Paso Wal-mart, killing 20 people and wounding dozens of others. Shortly before the shooting, the suspect is believed to have posted a manifesto on the website 8chan warning of a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas.
• Late Sunday evening, a reporter asked O'Rourke, "is there anything in your mind that the president can do now to make this any better?"
• "What do you think? You know the s--- he's been saying. He's been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don't know, like members of the press, what the f---? You know, I ... it's these questions that you know the answers to," O'Rourke responded.
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Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke criticized the media's coverage of President Donald Trump in emotional comments to a reporter the day after a mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.

On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in an El Paso Wal-mart, killing 20 people and wounding dozens of others. Shortly before the shooting, the suspect is believed to have posted a manifesto on the website 8chan warning of a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas and writing that he was "simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion."

Late Sunday evening, a reporter asked O'Rourke, "is there anything in your mind that the president can do now to make this any better?"

O'Rourke, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, gave an impassioned and emotional response both calling out Trump's rhetoric and the media for continuing to question whether Trump was enabling racism.

"What do you think? You know the s--- he's been saying. He's been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don't know, like members of the press, what the f---? Hold on a second, you know, I ... it's these questions that you know the answers to," he responded.

He continued, "connect the dots about what he's been doing in this country. He's not tolerating racism, he's promoting racism. He's not tolerating violence, he's inciting racism and violence. So, uhm, you know, I just ... I don't what kind of question that is."

Read more: A video of Trump laughing at a proposal to 'shoot' migrants is resurfacing after shootings in Texas and Ohio

Federal authorities in Texas are investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism, and federal prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty for the suspected shooter.

In a Saturday appearance on CNN, O'Rourke further agreed that Trump is "a white nationalist," adding, "we have a problem with white nationalist terrorism in the United States of America today ... these are white men motivated by the kind of fear that this president traffics in."

In the early hours of Sunday morning, another mass shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio, in which a suspected gunman killed 9 people - including his sister - in the city's Oregon District.

In his comments about the two mass shootings so far, Trump has blamed mental illness, the media, and immigration for the mass killings, tweeting on Monday morning that universal background check legislation should be paired with "immigration reform," and wrote that "fake news has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years."

Read more:

2020 Democratic candidates are pointing to Trump as 'encouraging' shootings such as those in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio

'When is enough, enough?': Ohio politicians push for gun control after Dayton mass shooting kills 9

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