White House hopeful Beto O'Rourke on Monday snapped back at South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for suggesting he was picking a fight on the merits of a gun buyback program "in order to stay relevant."
O’Rourke tweeted Monday:
"Pete can belittle the grassroots; he can call buybacks a 'shiny object.' He can say whatever he wants, but guns kill 40,000 people each year. Those people deserve action. I'll be fighting for them."
Buttigieg and O'Rourke have sparred over the buyback program for some time, including two weeks ago during a gun control advocacy event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Buttigieg said buybacks, as a policy, "had mixed results. It's a healthy debate to have, but we've got to do something now."
Later in the event, O'Rourke challenged Buttigieg as a candidate who was "worried about the polls" and who "probably wants to get to the right place but is afraid of doing the right thing right now."
Buttigieg on Monday insisted on referring to buybacks as "confiscation" during an interview on the Snapchat show Good Luck America.
"I just don't think we should wait, to have a fight, over confiscation, when we can win on background checks and assault weapons bans and red flag laws right now," Buttigieg said.
When asked about O’Rourke's swipes, Buttigieg responded on Good Luck America: "He needs to pick a fight in order to stay relevant."
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