'Pure propaganda': Texas local who interrupted Beto stunt a former Democrat, lost relatives in Uvalde shooting

Democratic politician Beto O’Rourke drew plenty of attention to himself when he attempted to hijack a press conference on the Uvalde school shooting by Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and spoke up about gun control.

But a local man in attendance was having none of it, interrupting O’Rourke by saying: “That’s propaganda, bro. Move on. You’re trash, man.”

Daniel Marans, a senior reporter for The Huffington Post, caught up with Cody Ytuarte, a carpenter from Harper Texas, who said he came to Uvalde because a cousin, Kendall Olivera, had been shot and killed in the shooting.

Ytuarte said he spoke up against O'Rourke's interruption because, "there's a time and a place to address certain things like that." 

"To do it in the moment in which the tragedy is being addressed so recently... is pure propaganda," he told Marans. 

Ytuarte explains why he interrupted Beto: “There’s a time and a place to address certain things like that. To do it in the moment in which the tragedy is being addressed so recently … is pure propaganda.” pic.twitter.com/gx5AjZz9ez

— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) May 25, 2022

He added two other distant cousins, whose names escaped him, were also killed.

The 38-year-old Ytuarte, a third-generation Hispanic American, said he grew up a Democrat but left the party between 2008 and 2012 because of their drift away from the working class and into divisive racial politics.

“I went my whole life believing that Democrats were for the little guy, for the middle man,” he told Marans, who also disliked how the left villainized law enforcement.

Ytuarte said that he believed that there were already “quite a bit of gun regulations now, in existence,” but they did not keep the shooter, Salvador Ramos, from legally purchasing firearms because he had no criminal history.

Ytuarte is wary of additional gun regulations. pic.twitter.com/jtp6lwMF0b

— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) May 25, 2022

Ytuarte was also an enthusiastic supporter of former President Donald Trump, crediting him for a strong economy.

“I really enjoyed his mean tweets because it revealed a lot about people in general,” he said.

“The racist comments were foolish,” Ytuarte admitted when asked about Trump’s remarks about the Hispanics, but said he looked to see if they were “reflected in his decisions as a businessman and president.” 

Finally, I asked Ytuarte why he likes Trump. “I really enjoyed his mean tweets.” He thinks media took comments out of context to make Trump seem racist. pic.twitter.com/DCQszjeSJz

— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) May 25, 2022

Ytuarte’s grandparents immigrated from Mexico. Marans noted that Ytuarte does not speak much Spanish and opposes illegal immigration, as do many other rural South Texans.

Marans interviewed others at the press conference as well, including a pair of Republican women who disapproved of O’Rourke’s interruption but did support closing background check loopholes.

O’Rourke and Abbot will be facing of in the 2022 midterm elections later this year. The incumbent governor is leading his Democratic opponent by 11 points, according to polling earlier this month from the University of Texas and the Texas Politics Project.