Live updates: Deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas – CNN

A reporter asked Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso native, the following question during an interview Saturday:

“Regarding the manifesto and everything that was in it, fears about Hispanic immigration and all that, does any of this fall at the feet of President Donald Trump and his rhetoric that’s been growing over the last couple weeks and his alleged racist tweets and other rhetoric?”

O’Rourke said, “Yes.”

“We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years, during an administration where you have a president who’s called Mexicans rapists and criminals. Though Mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than those born here in the country, he has tried to make us afraid of them, to some real effect and consequence, attempting to ban all Muslims from this country. The day he signed that executive order the mosque in Victoria, Texas, was burned to the ground. Those chants that we heard in Greenville, North Carolina, ‘send her back,’ talking about our fellow American citizens, duly elected to represent their constituents in the congress who happen to be women of color. He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country, and it does not just offend our sensibilities. It fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.”