The host, Ed Henry, repeatedly pressed Hinojosa to give an example of an accomplishment by O'Rourke, a former congressman who announced his bid for the presidency earlier that day.
“What would you say is Beto O’Rourke’s top accomplishment that he brings to the table?” Henry asked.
“I think what Beto O’Rourke has done, particularly in the last senatorial campaign that he ran in 2018, is … show the people of Texas and now the people of America what it means to be an honest politician, an honest person who is going to talk about things that are important to families all across this country. You don’t always see that," Hinojosa answered.
“Pardon me, but Nancy Pelosi was asked today about his biggest accomplishment and she could not really name one, even though he served in the House for a brief time admittedly,” Henry followed up. “But you are telling me he is an honest politician, that’s his biggest accomplishment?”
Hinojosa then pointed out that Republicans controlled the House of Representatives during the entirety of O’Rourke’s six years in office.
“Sir, but did he create a job somewhere? Did he create a product? What has he accomplished? It is an honest question,” Henry pressed. “I’m not even talking about Congress. What has he gotten done in his life, sir? Has he created a job?”
“Your question is meaningless,” Hinojosa concluded.
O’Rourke announced his candidacy in an internet video on March 14 and began campaigning in Iowa. In the announcement video, he positioned “climate change” as an existential threat and suggested that America’s economy and democracy are in a crisis.
O'Rourke is embracing the socialist Medicare for All and Green New Deal plans, which, by some estimates, would triple the tax burden on American taxpayers. He repeatedly refused to disavow socialism in a profile aired by the BBC last year.
In Iowa on March 14, O'Rourke discussed packing the Supreme Court with Democrats, said that the people drafting climate change proposals are akin to D-Day soldiers and lamented that Americans who live in rural areas don’t have access to Tinder, a popular dating app.
O‘Rourke gained national attention running a long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate in Texas against Sen. Ted Cruz (R). O’Rourke lost the election but has worked to remain in the public eye, including doing an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
In February he staged a rally in El Paso to compete with the one held by President Donald Trump nearby on the same day. The crowd watching Trump’s speech dwarfed the one gathered for O’Rourke, earning a jab from Trump.
“He challenged us,” Trump, the presumed GOP candidate for 2020, said. “So we have let’s say, 35,000 people, tonight. And he has 200 people, 300 people. Not too good.”
“That may be the end of his presidential bid,” the president added.
