Trump ridicules Beto O'Rourke for ending presidential campaign, calls him a 'poor, pathetic guy' who 'quit like a dog'
Barely hours after Beto O'Rourke announced that he would be dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race, Donald Trump ridiculed him saying he "quit like a dog".
A former Texas congressman, O'Rourke has been highly critical of Trump after the August mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso. He even called the bloodshed a "consequence" of Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric.
It was on Friday that O'Rourke announced that he would be quitting the presidential race since his campaign did not have "the means to move forward successfully".
Speaking at a rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, hours later, Trump said O'Rourke was a "poor, pathetic guy".
"Oh, did you hear? Beto," he had said, "Oh, that poor bastard. Poor pathetic guy. He was pathetic. He came out of Texas a very hot political property, and he went back as cold as you can be."
Not unlike himself, Trump also mocked O'Rourke's manner of speaking. "Does he ever stand on the floor and speak? But he's waving his arms and going crazy, and I said 'What the hell is [he] doing? What is he on?"
Trump had earlier mocked O'Rourke on Twitter saying, "Oh no, Beto just dropped out of the race for President despite him saying he was "born for this." I don't think so!"
O'Rourke had taken to Twitter to announce the end of his campaign. "Our campaign has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively. In that spirit, I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee."
In the following blog post, he wrote, "We confronted institutional, systemic racism and called out Donald Trump for his white supremacy and the violence that he's encouraged against communities that don't look like, pray like or love like the majority in this country."
"Though it is difficult to accept, it is clear to me now that this campaign does not have the means to move forward successfully," he wrote on Medium. "Acknowledging this now is in the best interests of those in the campaign; it is in the best interests of this party as we seek to unify around a nominee; and it is in the best interests of the country."