Beto Pulls Political PR Stunt at Abbott Press Conference
While there are plenty of examples of what we might consider acceptable bombast in American politics, showmanship if you will, there are lines that many of us are not comfortable having our elected officials cross. Sure, you can rant and rave to your heart’s content, and you can make wild claims online until your thumbs fall off, but there are just some things that we, as a nation, believe go beyond the pale.
And interrupting a press conference about an elementary school shooting to berate your gubernatorial opponent is one of them…especially is you get caught staging the whole thing.
CBS News suggested Beto O’Rourke likely staged his surprise appearance at Gov. Greg Abbott’s press conference on the deadly Texas school shooting Wednesday.
Advertisement - story continues belowAlthough the public was largely surprised by the Texas gubernatorial candidate interrupting Abbott while he provided updates on the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school, CBS correspondent Janet Shamlian, who was present at the conference, claimed the appearance was “clearly staged.”
Oops.
“Well, I did see what happened just before the press conference started. I was in the third row on the aisle, and there were two people across the aisle from me. And a moment before the press conference started, they got up from their seats when Beto walked in, so they were seat holders for him,” Shamlian recounted. “Then, he sat down. So his presence wasn’t really noticed in the 15 or 20 minutes that people were gathering inside, because he was not in the room. This seems something very clearly from Beto O’Rourke wanting to confront the governor at this moment.”
O’Rourke is no stranger to questionable public relations decisions, including releasing a video of himself trying to impress teens in a Whataburger parking lot while riding a skateboard.
