At First N.H. Stop, Beto O'Rourke Warns That Climate Change Could Trigger a Massive Refugee Crisis

KEENE, N.H. - Beto O'Rourke, at his first stop in New Hampshire since jumping into the 2020 presidential scramble, painted a dire picture of a world degraded by climate change, warning of mass migrations that no nation will be able to cope with."If you are worried about 400,000 apprehensions of our southern border with Mexico last year, wait until some of the countries in the Western hemisphere are no longer habitable by human beings. The refugee crisis here and all over the world is beyond our imagination," he said.O'Rourke arrived at Keene State College 75 minutes behind schedule, after driving more than eight hours from State College, Pa.The El Paso Democrat, a former three term congressman, drove thousands of miles in his near-miss effort to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz. He spent his first three days as a presidential candidate driving around eastern Iowa before moving to Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, skipping ahead by air only once.Hundreds of people awaited him in Keene at 7 p.m., when he was scheduled to appear in the three-story atrium of the student center on campus.As some began to trickle out, supporters took the mic occasionally to ask for patience. An hour after the scheduled start, they pointed the crowd to Facebook Live, where O'Rourke spent the final 12 minutes sprint taking questions and explaining the snafu."We'll be there soon," he said, noting that he and his aides had probably hadn't carved out enough time for pit stops and sandwich breaks when they left State College, Pa., earlier in the day. "This is the longest drive of the campaign so far. Eight hours on the road. So there's still some kinks to work out."The New Hampshire Democrats who stuck it out - and there were still plenty left by the time O'Rourke arrived, greeted him warmly and cheered enthusiastically at numerous points.He took President Donald Trump to task on climate change - "an administration that doesn't believe in the facts," that rejects science. Trump, he said, has not managed to derail North Korea's nuclear weapons program even as "he's fallen in love with Kim Jung-Un, a brutal dictator who has the blood of Otto Warmbier on his hands, who has tortured and killed and starved his own citizens."Trump returned from a summit with Kim in Hanoi saying he believed his assertion that he'd been unaware of the mistreatment that led to the death of Warmbier, an American college student imprisoned for taking a propaganda poster, beaten, and eventually returned to his parents comatose, only to die soon after.Republicans welcomed O'Rourke to the Granite State, whose February primary is the second contest of the nomination fight, after the Iowa caucus."It's been a rough few days for 2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke as voters realize he's more fanfare than substance. By embracing the Green New Deal, calling for an end to the Electoral College and supporting late-term abortions, Beto O'Rourke is on a collision course with everyday Americans who will reject his extremist views that offer no substance or solution," said GOP spokeswoman Mandi Merritt.O'Rourke raised $6.1 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate, topping even the $5.9 million raked in by Sen. Bernie Sanders.He's faced criticism that he lacks specifics, and the GOP taunted him for apologizing for white privilege, and jokes about his wife.  Continue reading...