DEMS/ELECTION/RALLY/TEXAS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump’s confrontations with potential Democratic challengers in 2020 have mostly been limited to sniping on Twitter. But on Monday [2-11-19] night in El Paso, he will engage in his most direct conflict with a possible rival — former Representative Beto O’Rourke, a native of the city that shares a border with Mexico. Mr. Trump’s rally in El Paso is his most significant since the midterm elections that delivered the House of Representatives to Democrats. It will provide the president with a backdrop that he will use to again argue for a border wall to stop what he said is a surge of crime and drugs being brought into the country by migrants seeking illegal entry. Mr. O’Rourke has been among those who have strongly rebutted the president’s case that El Paso serves as an example of where building a wall has indeed provided a solution to crime.”
–Michael Tackett, “Dueling Rallies in Texas for Trump and O’Rourke,” The New York Times online, February 11, 2019