GOP posts Beto O’Rourke’s DUI mugshot, guy responds with DUI mugshots of Republicans

The official Twitter account for the GOP decided to celebrate St. Patricks’s day by posting a photo of presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke‘s 1998 mugshot for a DUI, but a quick-thinking Twitter user reminded them that those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

In September of 1998, O’Rourke was booked for drunk driving after he lost control of his car and hit a truck. Witnesses say O’Rourke attempted to leave the scene. His charges were dismissed after he completed a court-assigned diversion program.

In the GOP’s post from Sunday, a green leprechaun’s hat with a shamrock was photoshopped onto O’Rourke’s head in the mugshot, with the caption, “Please drink responsibly” — an obvious reference to O’Rourke’s past DUI.

The tweet was met a wave of backlash, with many people calling it a cheap shot that uses stereotypical imagery of Irish people.

“I guess DUI kings George W. Bush and Matt Gaetz and the alcoholic Richard Nixon were not Irish?” one person commented.

“The head of your party, ‘POTUS,’ is under numerous federal and state felony investigations, including one into colluding with a hostile intelligence service to win an election,” commented another. “Your former finance co-chair is currently under felony indictment and cooperating. Sit down.”

By far, the most popular reply on the thread came from Twitter user Mark Proteau, who shared a few mugshots from GOP politicians.

The tweet included mugshots of Matt Gaetz (R-FL), former Idaho Senator John McGee, current Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, and current Florida Rep. Dane Eagle.

In 2008 before he was elected to the Florida House, Gaetz was arrested on suspicion of DUI. He was never convicted and has since lobbied to have mugshots removed from private websites.

In 2011, John McGee was arrested on charges of misdemeanor DUI and felony operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent. Police said the then-38-year-old senator’s blood alcohol content was measured at .15, nearly double the legal limit.

In 2012, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo was arrested for driving under the influence in a Washington D.C. suburb.

In 2014, GOP Rep. Dane Eagle was arrested for driving under the influence in Tallahassee. According to police, he nearly hit a curb and then ran a stoplight. Eagle told police he did not drink alcohol that night and the odor was due to friends who were drinking at a bar earlier riding in his car.

When asked to respond to the GOP resurrecting his mugshot, O’Rourke said, “I’ve been at in the last three and a half days something like 23 or 24 different events. At not one of them — and anyone could ask any question that they wished to — was I asked about that or was I asked to say something negative about another candidate or someone from another party.”

“I take from that that people want us focused on the big picture, on our goals,” he continued. “They want us to be defined, not by this pettiness or the personal attacks that we see in ones like the ad that you just described. They want us to be defined by our ambitions, our aspirations. The work that we’re willing to do to pull this very deeply divided country together.”

“We cannot meet this challenge with more partisanship, more pettiness, more meanness, more personal and partisan attacks. We have to meet this moment by coming together. And so that’s what I choose to do and I hope that’s what this country chooses to do.”

If the GOP really wants to go after O’Rourke, they should point out the fact that his skateboard-riding skills are a farce.

[This article has been updated]

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.