Beto O’Rourke ripped Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday, alleging the top Democrat has done “absolutely nothing” to combat gun violence.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate slammed Schumer while campaigning in Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman killed a dozen people in a movie theater in 2012.
“Ask Chuck Schumer what he’s been able to get done,” O’Rourke said, according to Politico. “We still don’t have background checks. Didn’t have them when he was in the majority, either. So the game that he’s played, the politics that he’s pursued have given us absolutely nothing and have produced a situation where we lose nearly 40,000 of our fellow Americans every year.”
O’Rourke has repeatedly pledged that Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s would have to sell them to the government if he’s elected president. Democrats who disagree with his position have accused him of playing into Republicans’ hands.
Schumer questioned how many Democrats would actually back O’Rourke’s proposal in a call with reporters earlier this week.
“I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke, but it’s no excuse not to go forward,” Schumer said, according to the Times Union.
O’Rourke responded: “What he may not know, but what I hear loud and clear— because I’m traveling the country listening to my fellow Americans — is that the people are there.”
