Beto O'Rourke loses two top staffers in infancy of 2020 campaign
The Texas Democrat's staff shrinks as the field of primary challengers grows; Peter Doocy has the details.
On Wednesday night, 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke stopped by "The Late Show" to chat with host Stephen Colbert about his campaign.
Colbert turned the tables on O'Rourke and asked him why he's running for POTUS against President Trump when he lost his Senate run in Texas against Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the midterm elections last year. The former congressman could still run for the Senate seat in 2020 if he were to drop out soon.
“What made you go, OK, didn’t get Senate, let’s go for the brass ring here and go for president of the United States?” the entertainer asked.
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O’Rourke responded calling his campaign "special" and added his “grassroots movement represents the kind of movement that it will take to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and then bring this country together again.”
Colbert then brought up that Democrats in Texas want O'Rourke to run against Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, because he's "not particularly popular right now." Colbert followed up, “Why not go for that, you already know how to run for Senate...”
"I just think given where we are, in this country, this moment of truth on everything you could care about,” O’Rourke said. “Will we be up to the challenge of confronting climate change before it’s too late. We will be able to extend health care to every single American."
"Will we ensure that our democracy under attack by our very president, can we save it? I want to be in the most consequential position to make sure that I do everything I can to deliver for this country," he added.
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Colbert then asked the presidential hopeful how he feels about moving forward with impeachment proceedings against President Trump if he were to win in 2020.
“Impeachment is not about getting rid of the president, it’s about finding the facts, getting to the truth, ensuring that there’s accountability and justice for what happened to this democracy in 2016,” O’Rourke explained. “If we set the precedent that some people are above the law, or beyond the reach of the law, by not impeaching this president, not getting to the facts or the truth. I think that begins the end of this democracy.”
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According to recent polling data provided by Economist/YouGov on Wednesday, O'Rourke is only at 3 percent support behind other Democratic nominees running, including Former Vice President Joe Biden at 26 percent support, Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 16 percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders at 12 percent, Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 8 percent, and Sen. Kamala Harris at 7 percent.
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