Beto’s ‘sick’ school shooting stunt

Plus: Biden and BTS

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke interrupts Texas Governor Greg Abbott during a press conference (Getty Images)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke interrupts Texas Governor Greg Abbott during a press conference (Getty Images)
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For the next week, the DC Diary will be written by a rotating cast of Spectator editors. Today’s author is Amber Athey. 
Beto’s ‘sick’ school shooting stunt
America was rocked Tuesday by news that yet another school had been caught in the crosshairs of a maniac mass shooter. An eighteen-year old Hispanic male in Uvalde, Texas, shot his grandmother before crashing his car into a local elementary school, where he then barricaded himself in a classroom. He executed nineteen children and two adults.

Shootings like this are usually followed by cries of “do something!” Those who don’t just “do…

For the next week, the DC Diary will be written by a rotating cast of Spectator editors. Today’s author is Amber Athey

Beto’s ‘sick’ school shooting stunt

America was rocked Tuesday by news that yet another school had been caught in the crosshairs of a maniac mass shooter. An eighteen-year old Hispanic male in Uvalde, Texas, shot his grandmother before crashing his car into a local elementary school, where he then barricaded himself in a classroom. He executed nineteen children and two adults.

Shootings like this are usually followed by cries of “do something!” Those who don’t just “do something!” are accused of not caring about the small bodies lying in the classroom. Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor of Texas, decided the time to make this accusation against opponent, Governor Greg Abbott, was during a press conference meant to update the public with details of the massacre.

“This is on you,” O’Rourke insisted, pointing his finger in Abbott’s direction. Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin shouted that O’Rourke is a “sick son of a bitch” as the gubernatorial candidate was escorted out by security. After the situation calmed, Abbott urged Texans not to focus on their own personal agendas but the families who lost loved ones. The entire scene was a spectacle that, of course, accomplished nothing.

While the left pulls weird stunts, like Beto’s last stand or comparing the shooting to the death of George Floyd, the right usually offers minimal solutions to the problem — which can seem just as tone deaf. Politicians and pundits debate whether the issue is access to guns, a lack of school safety measures, or poor responses from police. The latter, in this case, seems the most pressing: why did the police wait outside the school before attempting to breach the classroom while parents had to listen to their children be slaughtered? Why did it take a border patrol officer who arrived an hour later to think to ask for a key to the classroom?

But rarely do we get into the deeper questions: what is it about our society that pushes so many young men to go on a rampage?

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Biden and BTS

On a lighter note, Biden is continuing the White House’s cult of celebrity by inviting K-pop superstars BTS to discuss a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Biden previously brought pop star Olivia Rodrigo to the briefing room to talk about vaccines, and Selena Gomez last week hosted a mental health forum with Dr. Jill and MTV. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas stopped by the White House in February, as Biden said he was a big fan of their music. The frequent celebrity sightings at the White House call back to the Obama era, when it wasn’t a career-ender to be seen with the commander-in-chief.

What you should be reading today

Ian Williams: Saving Taiwan
Doug Stokes: America’s ‘techwokery’ is infecting its allies
Debbie Hayton: Ricky Gervais is no ‘transphobe’
Charles Lipson, RealClearPolitics: Sussmann trial exposes Dems’ scandal-industrial process
David Harsanyi, Federalist: Don’t surrender to Do-Somethingism on guns
Mary Margaret Olohan, Daily Wire: Pro-life leaders prepare for threatened ‘summer of rage’

Poll watch

President Biden job approval
Approve: 40.5 percent
Disapprove: 55.2 percent
Net approval: -14.7 (RCP average)

Missouri Senate Republican primary
Eric Greitens: 24.3 percent
Eric S. Schmitt: 21.7 percent
Vicky Hartzler: 19 percent (Trafalgar Group)

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