He says whatever the group he’s speaking to wants.
Via US News:
NEW YORK — DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke appeared to open the door to considering reparations for the descendants of slaves on Wednesday, in response to a spontaneous question from the Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network convention.
Asked whether he would sign into law as president a bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas that would create a commission to consider reparations, O’Rourke replied with an emphatic, “Yes.”
But just last month O’Rourke told an audience in Iowa he was not in favor of traditional reparations for African Americans, a position he was later confronted on during a stop in South Carolina.
“Why should I, as a black man, vote for you when you oppose reparations?” a man asked O’Rourke, according to Mediaite.
O’Rourke replied with a long answer arguing that making institutional changes like eliminating voter identification laws and gerrymandering would “begin … to get some of that repair.”
Sharpton’s question came after O’Rourke addressed hundreds of NAN attendees in New York City.