President Trump went after Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke for his position on guns and ending tax exemptions for churches that do not support gay marriage.
O’Rourke defended his policy stances during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, announcing his belief that churches and religious organizations should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose homosexuality. He also defended his gun confiscation policy.
“Last week, a very dumb Democrat candidate for president, that’s the end of him in the state, pledged to revoke the tax-exempt status of many churches and religious charities,” Trump said to a plethora of boos. “By the way, that was after a few weeks ago, he said, ‘Excuse me, we are going to take your guns away.’ That doesn’t work well.”
“I told him, remember the flailing arms? Nobody noticed it. I noticed it. The flailer! You remember? He was flailing all over the place. I said, ‘Why is this guy hot?’ John Cornyn is going to win so easily, just like Ted Cruz won,” he said. “John Cornyn is not talking about Beto anymore because Beto, in a few short weeks, got rid of guns and got rid of religion. Those are not good things in Texas to get rid of.”
Trump was not the only person running for president to criticize the former Texas congressman’s stance on potentially stripping religious exemptions.
“Religious institutions in America have long been free to determine their own beliefs and practices, and she does not think we should require them to conduct same-sex marriages in order to maintain their tax-exempt status,” a campaign spokeswoman for Elizabeth Warren said.
