this impossible thing suddenly became
possible political sensation
beto o'rourke and never in a million
years wanted to pursue
politics the tragedy that changed
everything the night before he died
i do remember my dad saying you know you
you should think about running for
office
the regret that lets so many people down
on trump
as disgusting as the things are that he
says
there's a lot to learn better on black
lives matter when
george floyd is publicly murdered no one
had to be
told to take to the streets and demand
justice
and his lifelong running mate tell me a
little bit about your wife
her gift and her curse is telling the
truth she also
will kick my ass when i need it
you can't live in this world today and
not be curious
in fact if ever there was a time to hear
from more than the usual suspects it's
now
this is the carlos watson show maybe
we'll surprise you
maybe you'll be mad at us sometimes or
inspired
not only do i hope people will see more
with the show but i hope they'll do more
and be more people
the good stuff starts now better welcome
to the show
thank you for joining me thank you for
having me on i'm i'm excited to talk
with you
yeah i i love uh your background it's so
beautiful i
uh i'm living in california these days
and i'm a son of miami florida and so
anytime i see something beautiful
i'm attracted to it the better o'rourke
phenomenon was the biggest political
story of 2018
as he tried to unseat long-time
republican senator ted cruz
beto's nice guy style made him a
political celebrity with beyonce lebron
james and jim carrey
all publicly supporting him but when the
votes were counted
beto came up short cbs news projects
that senator ted cruz has won
re-election in the state of texas
still wanting to fight for the values
and ideals he believes in
beto launched another campaign he ran
for president of the united states
but just eight months later came this
democratic presidential candidate
and former texas representative beta
o'rourke announced he is suspending
his campaign today with his powered by
the people grassroots organization
beto was putting all of his energy into
turning texas blue
for the presidential election something
that hasn't been done
in four decades i'm counting on you i'm
counting on you
[Applause]
[Music]
beto tell me a little bit about why you
think you became such a political
sensation if if you can
take a step back like why did you take
off why did it happen
how do you see it as the person who
actually had the true front row seat i
think
a lot of it has to do with the senate
campaign
that we ran first of all it was so
unlikely
you know that a guy named beto o'rourke
a congressman
from the furthest westernmost of the 254
counties of texas
who had a name id in texas of like one
or two percent
would be able to successfully challenge
an incumbent republican senator who's
one of the most
well-known figures in the state of texas
a state which last elected
a democrat to the senate in 1988
mission impossible um laughable
um quixotic at at best
and the way that we ran no posters
no consultants no focus group test of
the message
no talking points our guiding principle
was
everyone gets to be involved and have
been now
to each one of the 254 counties
of texas it doesn't matter how red
or rural your community we're not going
to write you off
we're going to show up and this
impossible thing suddenly became
possible
did you know that the uh kaepernick
moment was gonna hap was gonna be a
moment like when when did that
okay we're at a town hall meeting
ostensibly about public education and
the first few questions i get
are about the topic at hand
and then this young man stands up i kind
of wanted to know how you personally
felt
about like you had the nfl players
kneeling during the national anthems
i wanted to know if you found that
disrespectful to our country to our
veterans and
anybody related to that i i was my
batteries
were were low my tank was was about
empty
and in some ways that was a good thing
because it just allowed me to speak
directly
from the heart unfiltered my short
answer is no i don't think it's
disrespectful here's
my longer answer but i'm gonna try to
try to make sure that i get this right
after i gave my answer where i look
there are people who sacrificed in
uniform
there are people who sacrifice like you
know john lewis who got beat within an
inch of his life in 1965
uh crossing the edmund pettus bridge or
four years before that there are a lot
of people who sacrificed and struggled
to bring us to this point
and and perhaps the best way to honor
that service
is to take a knee or to stand up for the
things that you really believe in
and that you think will ensure that
everyone's civil rights
the dignity and respect owed to all of
our fellow americans
is is guaranteed and is insured and
carlos i remember
immediately afterwards the two folks who
are traveling with me
in in the campaign look at me and
they're like kind of looking at me like
like you know the campaign was starting
to do well betso and
we were starting to gain some traction
and you and you had to answer that
question and you had to answer it like
that
but thankfully uh a woman
in houston texas who caught the live
stream
of that exchange clipped it and shared
it and all of a sudden a lot of
the country was was talking about it and
i got to tell you i felt
so grateful that i got to play whatever
tiny minuscule role in advancing that
that conversation better looking back
now i mean you
came painstakingly close to winning
what would you do differently in order
to have won i always come back to
you know could i have tried harder could
we have
spent more hours of the day uh
campaigning across texas
you know if bethel hadn't said that the
president should be impeached
i always saying the president should be
impeached in 2017
and you know in in a somewhat
reliably conservative state maybe that
didn't fly so high while not being happy
with the result
i've accepted it and have been able to
to move on
but but also i'll tell you this i've
moved on with
a lot of the people who made that
campaign possible those those 20 000
volunteers
so many of them have signed up to help
lead the effort that we're running
across texas right now
it's called powered by people and it's
basically volunteers engaging again
all across the state of texas to try to
elect a democratic majority to the state
legislature
and to try to help joe biden and kamala
harris become the first democratic
nominees
to win the state of texas since 1976
[Music]
you grew up in el paso yeah you've been
there the whole distance
yeah born and raised my dad's
grandfather's
father came here with the railroad you
know past was a big railroad hub and so
that brought him
here and your works have have stayed
ever since my dad
was was on the edge of hippie dumb and
then perhaps the the best legacy from
that connection with
um maybe the hippie world is just a love
of outdoors
so i love taking my kids backpacking in
fact
we just got back from a 10-day road trip
through new mexico and colorado
camping under the stars for a lot of
that and that's something i got from my
dad
are you more like him you more like your
mom are you a bled i'm a blend
like my mom uh who who ran the family
business
i started a small business here in el
paso in the 1990s a technology business
and then a publishing business covering
city hall and arts and culture
in sila juarez and in el paso texas but
like my dad
i was very interested and involved in
politics from
a relatively young age and if i had met
you in high school
did you think you were the kind of guy
who not only would have gotten involved
in
politics but you would have run for
president like like was it that deep in
you
no yeah no you i don't know that you
would recognize me
um i was painfully shy
and and introverted and unsure of myself
in the world and what my role and
function and purpose
for for being alive was i loved music
and and in particular punk rock and
um and the punk rock community that for
a very awkward
weird strange kid was very welcoming
and affirming and i i thought that's
where i was going to be
headed in my life i i thought i was
going to either be playing music
or or helping to put the music out for
for others
who were doing that and and was very
happy to do that and never in a million
years
wanted to pursue politics but when i
when i moved back to el paso from new
york where i had gone to college
i got involved and i was able to shed
that shyness
and that uh maybe almost fear of
engaging with and talking to people that
i didn't know and discovered that i
loved it
loved knocking on doors when i was a
first time candidate
in 2005 for for city council love
talking to people loved meeting them
loved bringing people together loved
being brought together with others
and i've really never looked back now
your dad was a republican or did i make
that up
he was a a democrat for
most of his life he was the
co-chairman of the texas campaign for
jesse jackson
when jesse was running for president and
i have a very fond memory
of jesse jackson being in our living
room in el paso texas
where he held a press conference jesse
jackson not only was the most
electrifying speaker i had heard in my
life at that point
he may very well still be the most
electrifying speaker i had ever heard
we must never surrender america will get
better
and better keep hope alive
keep hope alive but my dad
um somewhat inexplicably and if you were
here
i'd i'd love to ask him uh after that
campaign after supporting jesse after
being a lifelong democrat
uh changed parties but he was still the
same person
at at the end of the day but had just
changed parties and he never got to see
you run for office beto did he know
did he know though that that's that's
where you were headed did were you ever
able to share that with him
not totally um it's really interesting
um the the night before he died and
remember he was hit by a car
when he was on his bicycle get some
miles in
on july 3rd of 2001. the night before
july 2nd
somehow fate god
chance brought us together we were
having a dinner of leftovers in the
backyard
of my parents house my mom was out my
sisters were out
just my dad and me sitting down with a
bottle of wine
maybe two bottles of wine over the
course of of dinner
and we we just and we kind of been
estranged
for um a while you know we just didn't
see eye to eye on a lot of things we
didn't get along
couldn't quite find the language to
communicate and i do remember my dad
saying you know you you should think
about running for office at some point
um
you know these things that you're
excited about that have you fired up
um there's a way that you can make a
difference and you know it's not easy
um but it may be something that that you
you ought to think about pursuing
so um i'm really grateful that we had
that last conversation together
um and and though he didn't see me run
for office maybe somehow he knew
that that was a possibility for me
better tell me a little bit about your
wife
and am i overreading and saying that
that that there's
something there between the two of you
that has also contributed to
the man you've become or or had you kind
of gotten a lot of the way here which
which actually allowed the relationship
uh to uh to take off
yeah i gotta tell you amy uh
to whom i've been married now almost 15
years absolutely changed my life
and changed me for the better
i think she forced me to think really
seriously about
who i am and who i want to be and what
i'm willing to do
to make that happen she's given me this
unconditional love
and support which is the most powerful
force in
in the world she also though will kick
my ass when
when i need it if i start bitchin and
moanin about
you know this or that is unfair or why
didn't things work out the the way that
we planned
um she will remind me there are a lot of
people who have it a lot harder
than you do there are a lot of people
who are counting on you right now so
you better figure this out and get up
and get after it beta do you think amy
will ever run for office will we ever
see her
her name on the ballot it's so
interesting um
i watched michelle obama's extraordinary
speech
at the beginning of the democratic
national convention it is up to us
to add our voices and our votes
to the course of history one of the
things that michelle said
was her admission that she hates
politics she just doesn't like this
stuff
i think amy sees things very similarly
she can't gladhand
she can't fake it she can't say that was
a great speech
if if that was a terrible speech um
her gift and her curse is telling the
truth i think that for for those reasons
she does not see herself in a a
public role or maybe better put she
doesn't see herself in the leading role
in in public life but i'd like to see
her do that or at least think about it
[Music]
tell me about your run for president
like like when you look back on it
what are the three or four things that
stand out most
for you first and foremost just how
extraordinarily
fortunate i am to have had the chance to
do that i am so grateful for the
opportunity
to run to serve you as the next
president of the united states
of america thank you i think also carlos
about how exhausted
i was after that senate race where i had
spent two years
literally on the road day in day out
traveling as 254
counties of texas without ever a thought
or dream
of running for another office certainly
not the presidency of the united states
of america
and then to suddenly and unexpectedly
at the conclusion that race be presented
with that opportunity
and have a number of people that i care
very much about
and admire and trust and respect
encouraging me
to run and beginning that campaign
without
having any of the the planning
the infrastructure the preparation the
rest
and i think to be honest the the depth
of understanding necessary to mount a
campaign that is not
the 254 counties of texas but the tens
and thousands
of counties across the the united states
i really know
that i let so many people down who gave
us so much
and and we owed them uh a much better
campaign that could have gone
a much longer distance they could have
been far more grounded
and and far more effective in the fight
that we waged
but i can't go back and and i can only
go forward and i can only give
this effort to make sure that texas
meets the moment
you know i i think i heard you say
somewhere that texas is bidens to lose
do you really believe that like as
someone who is as as
experienced and shrewd when it comes to
politics and and numbers counting
i do we are doing the necessary field
work right now to make sure that texas
is ready
for example powered by people our
organization has made just under
20 million voter contact attempts
human beings connecting with human
beings just like we did in the 2018
u.s senate race so the conditions are
there
we can do this we've got to give
ourselves permission to believe again
and then we have to bring it to pass
this is for democrats to lose right now
including joe biden ladies and gentlemen
el proximo presidente de los estados
i know that you're a student broadly in
general and even people you deeply
disagree with i'm sure you
learn from what if anything have you
learned from president trump
uh over the last several years in
whatever dimension you want to offer it
there's a lot to learn i mean the tv ads
the mailers
the stuff you see on on facebook it is
packaged and produced
it has been made safe for consumption it
is
pole tested and focused group approved
donald trump so successfully and
powerfully broke through
all of that he seemed to not only be
speaking his mind he seemed to be
speaking his
id certainly his ego as disgusting as
the things
are that he says mexicans are rapists
and and criminals the countries of
africa are shitholes he wants more
immigrants like those from sweden the
whitest place on on planet earth you
know
immigrants are an invasion and
infestation they're animals
who who the talks like that the most
powerful man in the world is talking
like that
and it completely blows past uh all of
the
filters and all of the the pre-approved
messages
from the parties and the people in power
and it connects directly with people
for better and as we have seen for worse
we have just learned a short while ago
that there has been a shooting
in el paso and so i just ask for
for everyone's strength for el paso
right now
the shooting in el paso that took place
on august 3rd of last year
this guy heard donald trump
and went out to go fight literally
that invasion that he had heard about
and use
a military weapon to take people out
like you take them out on on a
battlefield slaughtered
23 people shopping for school supplies
on the weekend before the first day of
school
in el paso i think i've learned just how
powerful
that that rhetoric is beto do you think
that if
uh trump loses that he
should be prosecuted or at least
reviewed
his actions in office should be reviewed
for potential prosecution
part of our our genius is the rule of
law and the idea that that no one is
above the law
and certainly no one is below the law if
we are to allow someone
because of the position of power that
they held
escape the law would be to set
a very dangerous precedent for this
country
if you've broken the law there has to be
a consequence i appreciate that you
that you're bringing that that energy to
the fight i'm reminded of uh
of bogey at the end of casablanca i
don't know if you've ever seen that
movie
of course it's a yeah it's a great it's
a great movie and he
says to louie at the end welcome to the
fight
[Music]
beto as we wrap up i want to hit a bunch
of topics
really quickly do you mind if i do that
with you and hit you i'd love to
hear what comes to mind who are two or
three of the candidates
you think people should pay attention to
if you look at candace valenzuela
um she is running for united states
congress
trying to unseat a long-serving
republican
incumbent she would be the first
afro-latina
member of of congress sima lajavardian
a daughter of immigrants from iran to
this country
who has built a successful law practice
and is a first-time candidate
also for the united states congress who
is running against
trump's most powerful enabler in
in the house right now dan crenshaw how
do you think about the question of white
male
privilege the more i think about it the
more i understand that it is
definitional educational economic
uh opportunities um housing criminal
justice
there is not an aspect of american life
that is not in some ways defined
by the power that white america has
accrued
ever since there was a white america
last question are you a sports fan are
you a uh do you have a team you have
someone you root for
my kids are are big celtics fans and so
that's one thing that i want to work on
during quarantine
is my my sports iq so that i'm
connecting with my kids better well good
luck then to your boys in the celtics i
love kimball walker so tell them they
have good taste
thank you so much for uh for joining me
i wish you the best for
i wish all of us the best uh for a good
fall thank you so much thanks
thanks for having me on i was honored to
join you and and i i really enjoyed the
conversation so
um would be glad to come back anytime uh
any time it works for you
i'm grateful thank you so much thank you
i really enjoyed having better o'rourke
on today you know he and i got to speak
for the first time a week ago and i told
him i was trying to do something
different with the show
and that i only wanted people to come on
who were really going to open up who
weren't going to repeat the same things
and he was true to his word i loved what
he shared about his dad you know
talking about jesse jackson gave me real
color and real clarity on who beto is
and who he was in that moment when he
was answering the question about colin
kaepernick
really told me a lot love what he had to
say about his wife what a lucky person
to have someone like that in his life
and then talk about beto making news you
know the idea of
trump being prosecuted after he leaves
office
that could create a big fight it also
could create real energy
anyhow i hope you enjoyed the show i'll
see you soon
hey tune into the carlos watson show
it's like no other you're going to enjoy
it every weekday on youtube
