CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — Beto O’Rourke said that the United States, which has endured a bloody Civil War and, as recently as the 1960s, political assassinations, race riots and a Vietnam war that ultimately led to 58,000 U.S. casualties in a conflict most Americans opposed, is “more divided’ and ‘more highly polarized’ in 2019 than ever before.

The former Texas congressman and his 2020 Democratic rival Pete Buttigieg drew connections between gun violence, white nationalism, and national security as they made their respective pitches at the Iowa Democrats “Wing Ding” dinner on Friday night.

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