Latest news with #BetoORourke
CBS News
4 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Beto O'Rourke considering running for office in Texas, again. "Nothing is off the table."
Former Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke is back in the public eye, and he said he's considering running for office next year. He's been making the rounds, holding town hall meetings in North Texas and across the state. O'Rourke, of El Paso, came close to defeating Senator Ted Cruz in the 2018 election. The Democrat ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020 and for governor of Texas in 2022. During an Eye On Politics interview, CBS News Texas asked O'Rourke which office he is considering running for: Governor or U.S. Senator. O'Rourke said, "This moment is bigger than a political office or a campaign, or any person, certainly myself included. There are a lot of folks in Texas who are really hurting right now. They're being hurt by this administration, whether it's cuts to the VA or proposed cuts to Medicaid. I really think there's power in bringing people together right now. Folks need to know that we're not isolated, that we're not alone." During an interview earlier this spring, O'Rourke said he would not run for U.S. Senate in 2026, when Republican Senator John Cornyn is up for re-election. However, during a town hall meeting several weeks later in Denton, a member of the crowd asked him if he would run for Senate, and he said he would if the people of Texas wanted him to. When asked what that meant O'Rourke said, "It means that if I am the right person to run for that seat, if I can do the most good for the people of Texas by actually winning and being able to serve them in that position of public trust, then that's something I should certainly look at. I do know that I'm nowhere close to understanding the answer to those questions. I don't think anyone can really unless they've gone out and listened to and been with and worked alongside the people that they want to serve and represent." When asked what criteria he will use to base his decision on whether to run, O'Rourke said, "I don't have a spreadsheet, or a list, or a set of data points that I'm going to be looking at. As I continue to listen to people, which is the most important thing I think I can do, and travel the state, that will be incredibly clarifying for the path that I pursue. I'm really agnostic as to what that looks like. I don't need to be a candidate, I don't need to hold office, but I do need to help Texas, in this country, at this moment of truth. I'm going to do everything I possibly can, and I'm taking nothing off the table." Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning on CBS News Texas, on air and streaming on the CBS News app. Follow Jack on X: @cbs11jack
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
'Rule of law' takes center stage at law school commencements
May 21 (Reuters) - Defending the rule of law has emerged as a recurring theme on this year's law school commencement circuit, with speakers urging graduates to use their new degrees to protect freedom and democracy at a time of political strife. A handful of speakers have condemned President Donald Trump by name from the dais, including Minnesota governor and 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who called Trump a 'tyrant' during his Saturday address to graduates of the University of Minnesota. But a more common approach among 2025 law commencement speakers thus far has been to avoid naming Trump while alluding to his administration, which has come under fire for what critics say is a trampling of immigrants rights, overreach by the executive branch and attacks on the judiciary. 'We are living at an inflection point in American history," American Civil Liberties Union President Deborah Archer told Seattle University law graduates on Sunday. "Our democracy, our rights and the systems we rely on to protect them are under threat." Former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke did not mention Trump directly in his Friday address to University of Southern California law graduates but spent the bulk of his speech recounting the decades-long effort to secure civil rights and voting rights. Today's law graduates must similarly push back against efforts to "undermine" the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution, he said. "Will we submit to the powerful and strong, or will we continue to be ruled by the law?" O'Rourke asked. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu on May 12 told graduates of the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco that it is both a challenging and important time to be a lawyer. "You are officers of the court, guardians of the rule of law — with the fate of our democracy in your hands,' Liu said. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is among the handful of speakers to directly address Trump from the commencement podium. He focused his Sunday address, opens new tab to Suffolk University Law School graduates on what he called Trump's attacks on the rule of law. The president, he said, 'is in the middle of bullying law firms into turning over their pro bono hours to him and revoking their security clearances because they took on clients that he perceives as enemies to himself.' Trump has accused law firms of "weaponizing" the legal system, citing their connections to his legal and political adversaries and their work on cases he opposes related to voting rights and other issues. He has issued executive orders against four law firms that seek to cancel their contracts with the government and block their attorneys from accessing federal buildings and officials, though judges have blocked key provisions of the orders. Virginia Supreme Court Justice Wesley Russell urged graduates of George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School to prioritize civility and engage in a meaningful way with people they disagree with. He lamented what he called the misuse of the words "unconstitutional" and "fascist." "Just scream that it's unconstitutional and you never actually have to engage with the idea," Russell said. Not all of this year's commencement speeches have centered on political turmoil, however. Former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar used her Monday address to Yale law graduates to share her five rules for oral argument — after the Harvard Law alumna noted that Yale law waitlisted her. Among those rules is to "prize your integrity" and "always keep fighting." Read more: Ketanji Brown Jackson among big-name women speakers at law school graduations Law school commencement speakers take on gun violence, sexism, cynicism
Fox News
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Young Dems blame Biden and their own party for losing in 2024 as they distance themselves from the old-guard
The Democratic Party is finally saying the quiet part out loud: "Biden should not have run again." Revelations about President Joe Biden's cognitive decline and his administration's alleged cover-up have returned to the national conversation ahead of next week's release of CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson's book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a 2024 presidential campaign surrogate for President Joe Biden, and considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, acknowledged on Wednesday that Biden should not have run for a second term. And Beto O'Rourke, one of Biden's 2020 Democratic primary competitors and the former congressman from Texas, joined the criticism this week, accusing Biden's re-election campaign of failing future generations of Americans. When pressed by Martha MacCallum on "The Story" on Wednesday about campaigning for Biden in 2024, Khanna said he hadn't had the full picture of Biden's health and mental acuity ahead of his disastrous debate performance, but he admitted, "We should be honest as a party that we made a mistake." "I do think it's important that, given what has come out, that we take accountability," Khanna said. "Obviously, he should not have run," Khanna said. Responding to a series of interview clips from early 2024, when Khanna affirmed Biden's intention to run for re-election and described the president as "fully coherent," Khanna said he had been telling the truth. "Of course, I didn't have the full picture," Khanna added. O'Rourke took Khanna's call for Democratic accountability a step further on "Pod Save America" this week, calling Biden's decision to run for re-election in 2024 a "terrible mistake." "Just to be clear: Biden should not have run again. And to be even more clear: He failed this country in the most important job that he had," O'Rourke said. "In fact, the entire rationale for his presidency the first time, and the rationale he tried to sell us on for his attempt to run for re-election, 'Only I can stop Donald Trump.' And he failed to do that, and it's not just you and me, but our kids and grandkids and the generations that follow that might have to pay the price for this. We might very well lose the greatest country that this world has ever known," O'Rourke said. An excerpt from Tapper and Thompson's book released by Axios this week revealed that Biden's declining health was "so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn't do so until after the election." In hindsight, Khanna and O'Rourke agreed that Democrats should have had an opportunity to launch their own presidential bids. And now that President Donald Trump has returned to the White House, and an already crowded field of potential 2028 Democratic candidates are mulling presidential campaigns, they said it's important to take accountability for 2024. "Obviously, there should have been an open primary. And, I don't think that's very difficult that Democrats should just be straight up that he should not have run, now that we have all the facts. There should have been an open primary. I think to move on and move forward, it's important to take accountability and be straightforward with the American people," Khanna said. O'Rourke said America's future could be in the balance "in part because of the decision that Biden, and those around him, made to run for re-election instead of having an open primary where the greatest talent that the Democratic Party can muster could be on that stage to have a competition of ideas, and track-record and vision and really excite, not just Democrats, but the people of this country who did want change. I mean, if anything was clear coming out of 2024, they wanted change." The once-2020 Democratic presidential candidate, who is 52 years-old, said the Democrat's Biden failure creates a credibility problem. "I think that credibility problem is going to persist up until when Democrats say, 'We f---ed up, and we made a terrible mistake,'" O'Rourke said. Despite O'Rourke's comments this week, he said in an email to supporters through his voting rights organization, Powered by People, last February that, "Donald Trump is the single greatest threat to our democracy. Our best chance to defeat him is to support Joe Biden in this election." "Amy and I voted for him in the Texas primary . . . and are looking forward to voting for him again in November," he added. "This president has done an extraordinary job of improving our economy, confronting the climate crisis, reducing childhood poverty and fending off the very worst of Donald Trump and the Republican Party's mounting attacks on our most fundamental freedoms." Another young Democrat and Biden's former National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, continued to defend his former boss at Politico's Security Summit on Thursday, dismissing an allegation that Biden had forgotten his name, and defending his leadership as commander-in-chief. "What happened in that debate was a shock to me," Sullivan admitted. "I think it was a shock to everybody." A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The Independent
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Beto O'Rourke says Joe Biden ‘failed this country' amid revelations of former president's decline in office
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke said that former President Joe Biden should not have run for re-election in 2024 during an appearance on Pod Save America. 'Just to be clear, Biden should not have run again. And to be even more clear, he failed this country in the most important job that he had,' the former Texas senatorial and gubernatorial candidate said. O'Rourke, who ran in the Democratic primary alongside Biden in 2020, added that 'We might very well lose the greatest country that this world has ever known. And it might be in part because of the decision that Biden and those around him made to run for reelection.' The Texas Democrat's comments come as Biden and his inner circle are facing increasing scrutiny amid new revelations about his physical and mental decline while in office. It has been reported that staff discussed the use of a wheelchair in case Biden was re-elected last year. On Friday, audio was revealed from the former president's 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Biden can be heard struggling to remember important dates and other information from his public and private life. 'If anything was clear coming out of 2024, [people] wanted change,' said O'Rourke. 'And to literally run the oldest guy who many people, accurately, to your point, said 'I just don't think he is capable of doing this.' … I think that credibility problem is going to persist up until when Democrats say 'we f***** up and we made a terrible mistake.'' Pod Save America host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau told Democrats with goals to run in 2028 last week to 'rip the f****** band-aid off' and admit that Biden shouldn't have run for re-election. 'The answer is, he shouldn't have run for a second term,' said Favreau. 'And when he did run for a second term, he should have stepped down much earlier after the debate, and his close advisers shouldn't have told him to run again, and they shouldn't have told him he was going to win.' 'I think that every Democratic politician, particularly those who want to lead the party and want to run in 2028, have to just rip the f****** Band-Aid off,' he added. This comes as Biden has done interviews with the BBC and The View as he steps back into the limelight in an attempt to protect his legacy. On The View, Biden pushed back against reporting of his cognitive decline, and former First Lady Jill Biden rejected the notion that she created 'a cocoon around him.' 'They are wrong. There's nothing to sustain that,' the former president said of the allegations of his decline while in office.
Fox News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Beto O'Rourke claims Biden 'failed' America by running for second term
Former Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke told the "Pod Save America" podcast on Thursday that former President Joe Biden "failed this country" by seeking reelection, which he believes contributed to current President Donald Trump's return to the presidency in 2024. O'Rourke argued that Biden should not have sought a second term and slammed the former president for trying to "sell" the public on the idea that he was the only candidate capable of defeating Trump. "It's not just you and me, but our kids and grandkids and the generations that follow that might have to pay the price for this," he said, adding, "We might very well lose the greatest country that this world has ever known." The former congressman and failed 2022 Texas gubernatorial candidate continued to place blame on Biden's reelection efforts for the Democratic Party's loss in 2024, suggesting that having an open primary would have benefited the party. "It might be in part because of the decision that Biden and those around him made to run for re-election instead of having an open primary, where the greatest talent that the Democratic Party can muster could be on that stage, to have a competition of ideas and track record and vision, and really excite not just Democrats but the people of this country who did want change," O'Rourke asserted. He claimed that "if anything was clear coming out of 2024," it was that Americans wanted change. O'Rourke also criticized members of Congress who, in the lead-up to the 2024 election, claimed that Biden was "running circles" around them in closed-door briefings. "It just doesn't add up with what I'm seeing with my own lying eyes," he recalled, adding that Democrats covering for Biden's alleged decline in mental acuity while in office created a credibility issue for the party moving forward. During a speech at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in 2023, O'Rourke echoed a similar sentiment towards Biden's reelection efforts, telling the crowd that Democratic voters were "unexcited" about a second Biden term. "This is critical if you want to win in 2024. It is no secret that Democratic voters are unexcited about Biden — that's putting it politely. It is no secret, thanks to the poll that we just read," he said. "The young voters, especially, are leaving his banner in droves. Now will they vote for Donald Trump? Will they vote for [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]? Will they not vote at all? I don't know. But let's give them a reason to vote for the president. Something bold, something big, something that matches the rhetoric that he used in 2020 and inspires voters in 2024 is what's needed right now," O'Rourke added.
