The Houston Chronicle has called on former Rep. Beto O'Rourke Beto O'RourkeJimmy Carter says his son smoked pot with Willie Nelson on White House roof O'Rourke endorses Kennedy for Senate: 'A champion for the values we're most proud of' 2020 Democrats do convention Zoom call MORE (D-Texas) to end his presidential campaign and run for Senate instead.

In a post on Saturday, the editorial board said that a passionate answer that O'Rourke gave to a reporter about what President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE could do to prevent mass shootings in the wake of a massacre in El Paso, Texas, "made us wish O’Rourke would shift gears, and rather than unpause his presidential campaign, we’d like to see him take a new direction."

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The former congressman's response to the question quickly went viral.

"What do you think? You know the shit he’s been saying," O'Rourke said of the president. "He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don’t know, like, members of the press, what the f---?"

O'Rourke paused his White House bid following the shooting that left more than 20 dead to return to El Paso.

The alleged gunman in the El Paso shooting has been linked to a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto, which described fears of a Latino “invasion." Several critics have drawn comparisons between the manifesto and Trump's immigration rhetoric.

"There are times, it seems, in most presidential campaigns when the facades get stripped away like so many layers of paint," the Chronicle wrote of O'Rourke's response to the question. "What’s left is a human moment, usually fleeting, and not always flattering. But real — and often more telling than a season of advertisements."