WASHINGTON – Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro walked back comments he made that suggested he believed fellow Texan Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign was toast.
“No, of course not,” Castro responded Sunday when CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked if he thought “the former congressman’s campaign is effectively over.”
Keilar pointed to how Castro said Friday night, “I am not ‘the other Texan’ in this race, I am the Texan in this race,” on the heels of a strong Wednesday night debate appearance, in which he and O’Rourke sparred over immigration policy.
“I have respect for Congressman O’Rourke. I was glad to support him when he ran against Senator Cruz. He and I get along well,” Castro continued. “The disagreement that we had the other night was about policy. It wasn’t personality.”
At the first of two debate nights in Miami, Castro called out O’Rourke for not wanting to change part of the Immigration and Nationality Act that makes crossing the border a crime.
In the past, O’Rourke has voiced reservations about doing this, fearing that traffickers and other criminals could use the law change to get off the hook.
Castro argued the law change would stop child separations.
At the debate, O’Rourke stumbled when confronted by Castro.
“You said recently that the reason you didn’t want to repeal section 1325 was because you were concerned about human trafficking and drug trafficking,” Castro said, explaining there were other laws that would take care of those offenses.
“If you did your homework on this issue, you would know we should repeal this section,” he said.
Instead O’Rourke visited the Homestead detention center Thursday morning and argued that the U.S. shouldn’t prosecute border crossers under that section, as opposed to the law being changed.
On Sunday, Castro again pointed out that O’Rourke “has refused” to change his mind.
“So many people, a lot of immigration lawyers, have said we have to do that if we’re going to be – if we’re going to effectively end family separation,” Castro said. “So this is about the people that are impacted by this.”
Castro noted that he visited the Clint, Texas, child detention center Saturday. O’Rourke made a trip to the facility Sunday.
“I was just at the Clint detention facility yesterday, where there have been reports of terrible living conditions, of children being mistreated, of all sorts of things that we cannot justify as American or human beings,” Castro said. “So this is important to me. It is not about a personal difference. It is about the policy.”
