As AP wrote about Sunday, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke addressed his “This is f***ed up” quote in response to learning of the Odessa mass shooting. He dropped the F-word during a live interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. I was so surprised to hear the word in a Sunday morning interview – even on a cable news network – that I quickly noted it on Twitter.

Beto just used the f-word on CNN.

— Karen Townsend (@penguinponders) September 1, 2019

I know that in Trump’s America we are all supposed to be in acceptance of the coarsening of our language in political conversations. This is an escalation, though, for a presidential candidate to be so unwilling to self-censor, even in nationally televised interviews.

Foul-mouthed candidate Beto O’Rourke wears his f-bombs as a badge of pride and now you can, too. As America relaxes during a long Labor Day weekend, Beto’s supporters can hang out in a t-shirt with his latest crudely worded quote. The campaign began promoting it mere hours on Twitter after Beto’s appearance on CNN. The quote is repeated six times on a black t-shirt and “End gun violence”. For a smooth $30 you, too, can purchase one.

New in the store…

100% of the proceeds will benefit @MomsDemand and @AMarch4OurLives.

This is fucked up. We can change it. https://t.co/PFRWFCypAl pic.twitter.com/Us1V4mz1cf

— Team Beto (@TeamBeto) September 1, 2019

The proceeds will be split equally between Moms Demand Action – the gun control group formed by parents after the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, and March for Our Lives – the gun control group formed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting. Beto is all about confiscating guns and this works well for him. As has been pointed out, all of this sure is well-coordinated, as though it’s part of a plan for his floundering campaign to create some headlines and buzz, even if it is on the backs of shooting victims. For a candidate known for flying by the seat of his pants, his campaign wasted no time jumping on this.

The t-shirt is safe for progressive purchasers – it is printed by a union and made in the U.S.A. just in time for Labor Day sales. Think of all the cool skateboarders sporting such woke messaging on behalf of the O’Rourke campaign.

T-shirt sales have been used in this political cycle to raise money but not to exploit a tragedy. The RNC, the Trump campaign, and Kamala Harris’s campaign have all offered t-shirts for sale that used quotes or ideas that caused a buzz in the media.

It is not the first time a campaign has turned a viral moment into a T-shirt for sale.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, House Republicans’ campaign arm, started selling T-shirts showing Greenland as a part of the U.S. to raise money following President Donald Trump’s dispute with Denmark over a sale of Greenland.

The Trump campaign sold a “Fredo unhinged” shirt mocking CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s altercation with a man who had called him “Fredo.”

And after the first Democratic presidential debate, the Kamala Harris campaign started selling “that little girl was me” T-shirts – a reference to a debate between Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden about school busing.

O’Rourke is known in Texas for foul language on the campaign trail. His speeches during his 2018 run against Ted Cruz for a seat in the Senate were frequently peppered with f-bombs and other language that his supporters lapped up. The rest of America now knows this is his schtick. It’s his way of showing how sincere he is about issues, however misguided the delivery of his thoughts may be.

Beto O’Rourke is a foul-mouthed gun-grabbing socialist who never met a government program he didn’t like. The Beto O’Rourke running for president is much more authentic than the one who ran for the U.S. Senate in Texas. No wonder he has refused to drop out of the presidential race to come back to Texas and run against Senator John Cornyn in 2020.

You can follow me on Twitter: @penguinponders