President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in El Paso, Texas, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) – President Donald Trump went to Texas to push his immigration policies but turned first to mocking Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic congressman from Texas now mulling a presidential run, as the two held dueling rallies in El Paso on Monday evening.
In a case of pointed political counterprogramming, O’Rourke held an evening march against the wall with dozens of local civic, human rights and Hispanic groups, followed by a protest rally attended by thousands on a baseball field across street from the arena where Trump was holding a rally to make his case for the border wall.
Mocking O’Rourke’s crowds as smaller than his, Trump predicted: “That may be the end of his presidential bid.”
People respond as President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in El Paso, Texas, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019. Trump is in Texas to try and turn the debate over a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border back to his political advantage. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The first dueling rallies of the 2020 election season were set to serve as a preview of a heated yearslong fight over the direction of the country. And they made clear that Trump’s long-promised border wall is sure to play an outsized role in the presidential race, as both sides use it to try to rally their supporters and highlight their contrasting approaches.
“With the eyes of the country upon us, all of us together are going to make our stand here in one of the safest cities in America,” O’Rourke said as music and cheers from Trump’s rally blared onto the field. “Safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”