O'Rourke talks domestic terrorism in OKC visit
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke on Monday toured the sites of two Oklahoma massacres that he attributed to the kind of hatred and racism still dividing the country.
“I' m learning from the people of Oklahoma, learning from our past to make sure we are safer and more secure ,” O' Rourke told reporters after touring the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
Earlier Monday, O'Rourke visited the Greenwood section of Tulsa, site of the 1921 race massacre in the area then known as Black Wall Street.
O'Rourke, a former U.S. House member from El Paso, Texas, said his visit to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing “is very resonant for those of us in El Paso who—a little more than two weeks ago — saw one of the largest terror attacks in the country since 1995.
“Twenty-two of our fellow Americans, citizens of Mexico, as well, killed based on their race and ethnicity by someone who is motivated and fueled by hatred and racism.”
O'Rourke was referring to the Aug. 3 mass killing at a Walmart by a white man who posted an anti-immigration screed on the internet. The case is being investigated by the federal government as domestic terrorism.
Timothy McVeigh, whose truck bomb resulted in the deaths of 1 68 people and injuries to hundreds of others in Oklahoma City in 1995, said he was seeking revenge against the U.S. government.
In Oklahoma City, O'Rourke said he was “very inspired by the way this community came together and has been defined not by the act of terror but by the strength and the compassion — the caregivers, the first responders, law enforcement who did such a heroic, courageous job on that day and every day going forward.”
O'Rourke's media appearance at the memorial drew one protester who declined to identify himself. He held a sign that read: “Grandad's grave is not a podium.”
O' Rourke also sch edu led visit son Monday to U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City and the University of Oklahoma. State Rep. Jason Dunnington, D-Oklahoma City, suggested the U.S. Grant visit as a way to talk to Hispanic students, some of whom are “Dreamers,” a reference to young people brought to the United States by parents who entered the country illegally.
O' Rourke said the Greenwood area of Tulsa, destroyed by white rioters who killed hundreds of black residents, was another example of a community's courage in the face of terrorism.
He said “the racism that has been foundation alto this country has now been admitted out into the open and people are acting on that . . . . If we do not call this problem out for what it is, we will not confront it, we will not stop it and we will not protect our fellow Americans.”
O' Rourke' s candidacy was well-received initially, though he has recently dropped in polls in Iowa. He said his trips to Arkansas on Sunday and to Oklahoma and Kansas on Monday showed that he wanted to prove he was running for all people, despite the politics of their state.
“If we want to serve this country, we've got to be everywhere in this country,” he said.