O’Rourke starts re-focused presidential campaign after El Paso shooting

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nexstar) — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke says he is heading back to the campaign trail.  

The former El Paso Congressman put his presidential campaign on pause for nearly two weeks after the mass shooting in his hometown. But O’Rourke says he is ready to campaign again.

In Mississippi, he says he’ll meet with the families impacted by last weekend’s immigration arrests of hundreds of allegedly undocumented workers.

“Where Donald Trump has been terrorizing and terrifying and demeaning our fellow Americans, that’s where you will find me in this campaign,” said O’Rourke.

He says his hometown was just the latest victim of President Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, and blamed the president’s racist rhetoric for the recent mass shooting in El Paso.

“We must take the fight directly to the source of this problem. That person who has caused this pain and placed this country in this moment of peril, and that is Donald Trump.”

Trump’s campaign was quick to respond. A campaign spokesperson said in a statement: “Beto O’Rourke is now using the tragedy in his hometown to bolster his struggling presidential bid.” 

O’Rourke says his campaign now has a new focus.