‘This Is How People Get Killed!’ Beto O’Rourke Slams ‘Hateful’ Rhetoric Around Migrant Stunt In Debate Throwdown With Greg Abbott

Former Congressman and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke tore into incumbent Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott over his migrant busing stunt and “hateful” rhetoric that can “get people killed!”

Abbott has been at the leading edge of a series of stunts in which Republican governors relocate asylum-seekers to make a political point, although imitator Ron DeSantis is grabbing most of the headlines these days.

He and O’Rourke faced off at a debate Friday night at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, during which O’Rourke savaged the governor for his stunt. O’Rourke also accused Abbott of using the sort of “hateful” rhetoric that inspired the racist El Paso mass shooting:

STEVE SPRIESTER: Absolutely. I’ll give you I’ll give you 15 sec.

GREG ABBOTT: He mentioned El Paso. The fact of the matter is that El Paso mayor, a Democrat, the El Paso City Council, Democrats, they are now busing more people than the state of Texas is busing. And he’s not calling them out for busing people to different regions.

BETO O’ROURKE: Different program. It is, it is apples to oranges. And I’ll tell you, this hateful rhetoric, this treating human beings as political pawns, talking about invasions in Texas, Texans defending themselves. That’s how people get killed at the Walmart in El Paso. The gentleman in Hudspeth that we just learned about yesterday, this is incredibly dangerous for Texas and is not reflective of our values.

STEVE SPRIESTER: Okay, Governor, I want to give you 30 seconds to respond to those charges.

GREG ABBOTT: Sure. I mean, it’s clear that Beto just wants to perpetuate the open border policies and mischaracterize exactly what’s going on. He refuses to acknowledge that the city of El Paso because they are so overwhelmed by Joe Biden’s open border policies, they, too, are having to bus migrants out of their communities because they have no way of keeping them there. That’s what we’re trying to do to help our local communities and make sure that we are going to lighten the load.

BETO O’ROURKE: No one is for open borders, not the least of us who actually live on the borders. This is the kind of stunt that you get from Greg Abbott. We need solutions right now.

Watch above via KXAN.