On Sunday, as Beto O’Rourke continued his single-digit reach for White House and hunting-rifle-theft glory, a woman in a Phoenix rally crowd confronted him over support for illegal immigration.

Here’s what the extremely-outnumbered lady had to say:

“Robert, I noticed that you pander a lot to the illegal aliens and encouraging illegal immigration. We are a nation of laws and I just think it’s a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who has waited, and paid, and played by the rules to immigrate to this country legally and who have respected our country, our land, our citizens, our laws, and who have gone through the process to come here legally.”

She accused him of slapping the face of all immigrants:

“To just say everybody is welcome here, you all get free stuff, and just come on over the border is again, a slap in the face to every legal immigrant, like my mother, who has come here legally.”

In the middle of her remark, the crowd booed.

A woman told me undocumented immigrants are a "slap in the face" to "legal immigrants."

I told her it's a slap in the face to lock kids in cages.

Immigrants pose no threat to her. And we need to call people out for saying they do. pic.twitter.com/cpnE9PGBvF

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 6, 2019

But Beto told them to let her finish.

Now, it’s at this point that something interesting could’ve occurred.

He could’ve listened to and addressed her comment.

Perhaps he could’ve explained his position, bolstered by moving realities. He might’ve changed her mind. He may’ve said something to reach those who would otherwise disagree, as his response was broadcast over the webwaves relentlessly.

Nope.

🙁

If I had to guess, I’d say he wanted her to complete her thought only so he could use it as a springboard.

There’s an age-old — and, it should be noted, presumably wholly ineffective — political trick that goes something like this:

You say, “What do you have to say about issue A, about which many find your position offensive?”

I volley, “I’ll tell you what’s offensive: Blah blah blah issue Z.”

And on we go into infinite dumbness.

Discussion, understanding, growth, and any discernible purpose to sound emanating from pieholes, all successfully averted.

Here’s O’Rourke’s reply to the woman’s “I just think it’s a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who has waited” point:

“[W]hat is a slap in the face to my conscience and the best traditions of this country is taking kids from their parents and putting them in cages. We, in this country, have lost the lives of seven children in our custody and in our care.

There are tens of thousands waiting on the other side of the border in an Orwellian-named migrant protection protocol. In Tijuana, in Ciudad Juárez, vulnerable, penniless, frightened. They’re being preyed upon by those exploit who those who have no defense left.

“If immigration is a problem, it is the best possible problem that this country could have. I want those asylum seekers here in this country. I want us to live according to our conscience, to our laws, to our commitments, and to the best, boldest, brightest future we could possibly have. Those immigrants pose no threat to you, nor to me; stop trafficking in these lies.”

And the beat goes on.

Or, the Beat-o.

-ALEX

Relevant RedState links in this article:

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Losing: Beto Tells Pro-2A Advocates It’s ‘Wrong’ To Be Carrying Their Weapons

Bock Bock, Beto Lays Another Egg: In America, You Can Murder Transgendered Non-Whites ‘With Impunity’

Beto Jedi Knights His Way Toward Victory: Tremendous Condemnation Over Gun Confiscation Only Proves He’s ‘Doing Something Right’

Find all my RedState work here.

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