The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers.

Beto O’Rourke wants to make it all about himself.

While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was holding a press conference about the shooting, O’Rourke decided to crash it. As part of a stunt to promote his campaign for governor, he shouted at and attempted to shame Abbott and Republicans for not choosing to “do something," i.e., confiscate guns. O’Rourke, like many of the prominent Democrats who claim these shootings are easily preventable, doesn’t actually have a solution responsive to the problem. But this is a political game for them.

That is especially true of O’Rourke, whose political future was made when legacy media propped him up as a cool, “Kennedy-esque” politician during his losing 2018 challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz. O’Rourke raked in millions from California and New York, spending $80 million for his challenge, as legacy media organizations fawned over his every move.

O’Rourke lost that race but was convinced by someone with suspect judgment that he should run for president. He lost again, this time in rather embarrassing fashion. Now, he is running against Abbott for governor, another race he is going to lose. O’Rourke will almost certainly move on from there to his next political venture, obsessively chasing power and public praise because the only thing he cares about is promoting himself.

That is why he interrupted a press conference about the shooting and its victims to make the whole thing about himself. He once again won fawning media approval for his stunt. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) compared him to the Chinese protester who stood in the path of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square.

CBS News’s Janet Shamlian said that the outburst seemed “very clearly staged.” Well, of course — O’Rourke is not only a mediocre politician, but he is also transparently insincere. He is an empty suit who doesn’t believe in anything, which is why he flipped from saying, “If you have an AR-15, keep it” in 2018 to, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15” in 2019 to, “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone” earlier this year. O'Rourke will say literally anything to match the electorate he is trying to appeal to.

The mayor of Uvalde, the community actually affected by the shooting, was angry with O’Rourke for trying to turn the shooting into a political issue. But it will undoubtedly win O'Rourke more donations and more media praise for his no-hope campaign. That’s all that really matters to him.