Texas gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke confronted Gov. Greg Abbott (R) about Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school. The video above shows the confrontation. O’Rourke called out Gov. Abbott’s response to the shooting, describing the shooting as “totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.”
“This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen,” O’Rourke told Abbott. “Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
The confrontation came amid a renewed push for gun reform in Washington in the wake of the shooting. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he hopes to pass a gun reform bill by the midterms.
O’Rourke confronted Abbott during a Wednesday news conference on the school shooting. O’Rourke was escorted from the news conference, with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calling O’Rourke “out of line and an embarrassment” and a member of the audience calling him a “sick son of a bitch.”
“We need to focus on the healing and hope that we can provide to those who have suffered unconscionable damage to their lives and loss of life,” Abbott said after O’Rourke was escorted. “We need all Texans to, in this one moment in time put aside personal agendas. Think of somebody other than ourselves. Think about the people who are hurt. And help those who have been hurt.”
At the Wednesday news conference, Abbott also revealed additional details about the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. This includes newly-discovered Facebook posts he published “approximately 30 minutes before reaching the school.”
“The first post was to the point of, he said, ‘I’m going to shoot my grandmother.’ The second post was, ‘I shot my grandmother,’” Abbott said Wednesday. “The third post, maybe less than 15 minutes before arriving at the school, was, ‘I’m going to shoot an elementary school.’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.