Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke asserted that the United States is racist “at its core” and “inherently violent.”

O’Rourke, who is currently running in the Democratic primary for president, spoke at a Democratic convention in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday. O’Rourke said that the U.S. is systemically racist, and that racism caused the August shooting in El Paso, Texas, which took 22 lives. The suspected shooter posted an anti-immigrant manifesto online and said he was targeting “Mexicans.”