Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said that President Trump is attempting to move the national focus away from the recent mass shootings by peddling conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
Speaking Sunday with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union from his hometown of El Paso, Texas, O’Rourke said that Trump is “changing the conversation” following the mass shootings.
“This is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories,” O’Rourke, 46, said. “And also to try to force you and me and all of us to focus on his bizarre behavior instead of the fact that we just lost 22 people in this community, nine people in Dayton, Ohio. We’re seeing an epidemic of gun violence every single day in this country.”
“He’s changing the conversation and if we allow him to do that, then we’ll never be able to focus on the true problems of which he is a part and make sure that we get to the solutions,” he added.
Epstein, a millionaire friend of the rich and famous and accused sex trafficker, was found dead in his cell early Saturday morning after reportedly hanging himself. Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory on Twitter Saturday evening that former President Bill Clinton had Epstein killed.
Both Trump and Clinton have past ties to Epstein, both presidents having flown on Epstein’s private plane, dubbed “Lolita Express.”
