Beto O’Rourke Blasts Texas GOP Leaders: Winter Disaster a Result of Electing ‘Government Leaders Who Don’t Believe in Government’

Former Representative Beto O’Rourke had harsh words for Republican leadership in his home state as Texas deals with a catastrophic arctic blast that has left millions without power and 24 reported deaths so far.

Appearing Thursday morning on MSNBC, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski  asked her guest how he assesses the job done by Governor Greg Abbott and also the Texas leaders in Washington, “specifically Ted Cruz.” Images of Senator Cruz allegedly dipping his freezing state to a Cancun resort have sparked predictable outrage.

The 2020 presidential hopeful cited comments made by Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle had to say about governance earlier in the show, saying it “really struck a chord.” Then he laid into his Republican counterparts in his home state.

“In Texas, you have an example of what happens when a state is governed by those who do not believe in government, to begin with,” O’Rourke noted.

“The Republican party, as you know Mika, has had absolute control of the state Senate, the state house, the governor, the lieutenant governor, every state-wide office for the last 20 years,” he explained. “So, the decision to deregulate ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and to ensure it is not connected to the national grid; to fail to weatherize our power generators, whether it’s coal, or gas, or nuclear, or solar or wind.”

He appeared to question the temerity of Governor Greg Abbott’s curious blaming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal, pointing the finger at “everyone, and everything except for themselves, which does not inspire confidence that we are going to get our way out of this.”

Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. An updated version of that would be that Senator Cruz did the limbo while his home state of Texas froze. According to O’Rourke, it’s not just Cruz that deserves ridicule, it’s all of the Republican leaders in Texas as well.

Watch above via MSNBC.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]