Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke campaigned before about 150 people last night at a brewery in Charlotte's University City.
O’Rourke spent much of his speech talking about the need for more gun control, including a buy-back program for weapons like the AR-15. He also says President Trump has encouraged white supremacy and white nationalism, which O’Rourke said led to the early August mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.
He said the shooter talked about an invasion of Mexicans.
"The same invasion that President Trump has warned us about, of Central Americans, and caravans of Mexicans and immigrants, who he has called animals, rapists, criminals, drug dealers and infestations — those are all the words that your president, our president, has used to describe human beings," O'Rourke said.
O'Rourke is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives who narrowly lost a high-profile U.S. Senate race against incumbent Ted Cruz last year.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, himself a Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, was set to campaign Thursday in nearby Rock Hill, South Carolina.
