‘Be quiet!’: Trump claims Beto O’Rourke uses a ‘phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage’

Hours before President Trump heads to El Paso on a mission to “help heal” the city after a mass shooting apparently motivated by anti-immigrant hatred, he lashed out at former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic presidential candidate and native son, for supposedly changing his name to appeal to Hispanic voters.

“Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed by polling at 1% in the Democrat Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement — & be quiet!” Trump tweeted just before midnight on Tuesday.

The attack, which raises the discredited claim that O’Rourke adopted a Spanish-language nickname as a political tactic, struck a jarring tone barely 24 hours after Trump called for bipartisan cooperation in the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend that claimed at least 31 lives.

View the complete August 7 article by Tim Elfrink on The Washington Post website here.