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Trump Takes Jab At Beto O’Rourke, Jokes He ‘Thought You Were Supposed To Win’ Before Running For President

By Naomi Kennedy
Published on: 08:46 PST, Dec 21, 2018

Despite what is most likely a tense day in congress as the threat of a partial government shutdown looms, President Donald Trump was still in seemingly good spirits, making a joke about one of his potential opponents in the 2020 presidential election.

During the signing event for the First Step Act on Friday, December 21, the Washington Post reported that the president was surrounded by a number of lawmakers there to celebrate the criminal reform bill that passed with an overwhelming majority earlier this week.

One man in attendance was Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who won re-election into the Senate over Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke by 3 percent of the vote even after a strong campaign that generated a considerable amount of funding by his opponent. President Trump took the opportunity of being in the same room as Cruz today to congratulate him on his victory, also using it as a chance to take a dig at a potential challenger as he runs for his own re-election in the 2020 presidential race.

“Congratulations on your race,” the president said to the Texan who ran against him in the election that ultimately awarded Trump his position. “You won easily. Now he’s running for president. I thought you were supposed to win before you run for president.”

As the comment made its way into news cycles and social media, Twitter was quick to point out the irony in the president’s jab, noting that Trump had not won any previous political races before taking office.

“You’ve got to be kidding. The reason he was elected was because he was NOT from within the beltway. He’s the outsider willing to show how bad the system has become,” one user wrote in response to White House AP reporter Zeke Miller’s tweet sharing the quote.

https://twitter.com/jeffdobbs/status/1076172857959432193

“Sir, all you ever won before running for president were five draft deferments and the rich daddy sweepstakes,” another said.

Other users took the opportunity to focus instead on Beto’s own track record, which includes a total of six winning elections.

Despite O’Rourke’s loss in his quest for a spot in the Senate, his campaign has garnered him a strong following for a politician who has been compared to Barack Obama by the former president himself when he sat down for an interview with David Axelrod for CNN’s The Axe Files, Newsweek reported.

O’Rourke has yet to confirm a 2020 run for president, but Politico noted that the recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll suggests he would do considerably well, as he placed third among likely Iowa caucus-goers behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders

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