by Chris White
Former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas suggested pushing financial institutions into refusing service to Americans who are seeking to purchase semi-automatic rifles, among other forms of artillery.
The 2020 presidential candidate is planning on using the Democratic debate in Houston to drum up pressure on credit card companies, ABC News reporter Jeffrey Cook noted in a tweet Thursday. The Texas Democrat is struggling to gain traction in a crowded field of Democrats seeking the presidency.
Credit cards have enabled many of America’s mass shootings in the last decade—and with Washington unwilling to act, they need to cut off the sales of weapons of war today. https://t.co/yqLHMF0EWD
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 12, 2019
“If this Congress and this president won’t act, the least financial industry could do is stop profiting off of sales of these weapons,” O’Rourke said in a statement Thursday ahead of the Democratic debate. “If enough of us speak out, they’ll consider it.”
O’Rourke’s campaign has not yet responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about what such an effort would look like.
Moderate Democrats say O’Rourke is getting desperate. One Democratic strategist quoted in a Sept. 10 Politico report said O’Rourke’s gun control plans will hurt his future career in Texas politics.
“Those words will come back to destroy him should he run for statewide office again,” strategist Hank Sheinkopf told Politico. “To say, ‘We will take away your guns,’ you know, in this state, in this culture, that’s a no-no.”
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Chris White is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Beto O’Rourke” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
