The Hill covers both El Paso, Texas border rallies and reports back……
President Trump on Monday knocked potential 2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke as the two men held competing rallies in the Texas border city of El Paso.
Speaking at a raucous event that served as the unofficial kickoff of his reelection race, Trump called the former Texas congressman “a young man who’s got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name.”
“He challenged us,” the president said, claiming that the crowd at his rally was larger than O’Rourke’s.
“Not good,” Trump added. “I would say that may be the end of his presidential bid.”
Trump noted that O’Rourke lost to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the 2018 midterm elections while he is “1 and 1” in his political career and stated “we’re going to go 2 for 0.”
The event also doubled as a chance for Trump to make his case for a border wall in a city that sits directly across the Rio Grande from Mexico.
Banners reading “Finish The Wall” hung in the rafters in the arena where Trump spoke…..
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) on Monday night sought to counter President Trump‘s claims about immigrants and border walls, arguing that his hometown of El Paso is “safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”
In a dueling rally approximately a block away from Trump’s own El Paso event, O’Rourke, who’s considering a 2020 White House run, touted the city as one of the safest in America for the past two decades. He claimed that since part of a wall was built, the city was “in fact a little less safe.”
“With the eyes of the country upon us, all of you together are going to make our stand in one of the safest cities in the United States of America. Safe not because of walls but in spite of walls,” O’Rourke said. “Secure because we treat one another with dignity and respect, that’s the way we make our communities and country safe.”
O’Rourke didn’t say Trump’s name, but he repeatedly criticized the president for his depictions of immigrants and said that the voters must “stand against the truth against lies, hate, intolerance.”
“A president describes Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. We have the chance to tell him and the country that they commit crimes at a lower rate than Americans who are born in this country,” O’Rourke said.
Prior to the “Celebration of El Paso” rally, O’Rourke held a one-mile march with thousands of participants and he was joined by his successor in Congress, freshman Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas)…..
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