Saturday, in the aftermath of the El Paso mass shooting, near the scene, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), a candidate vying for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination, blamed President Donald Trump in part for the day’s tragedy.

O’Rourke called Trump a “racist” and accused the president of stoking racism, which he said could be a part of the alleged shooter’s motivations.

“We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you have a president who’s called Mexican rapists and criminals. Though Mexicans commit crimes at far lower rates than those born in this country, he has tried to make us afraid of them to some real effect and consequence. Attempting to ban all Muslims from this one the day he signed the executive order, the mosque in Victoria, TX was burned to the ground. Those chants that we heard in Greenville, NC — ‘Send her back,’ talking about our fellow American citizens, duly elected to represent their constituents in the Congress, who happen to be women of color.

“He is a racist, and he stokes racism in this country. And it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country, and it leads to violence. And again, there are still details that we are waiting on, but I’m just following the lead that I’ve heard from the El Paso Police Department where they say there are strong indications that this shooter wrote that manifesto and this was inspired by his hatred of people here in this community.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor