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Cruz - Beto Debate -- Review After Debate

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O'Rourke Repeats Trump Line, Refers to Cruz as 'Lyin' Ted'

During their argue, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, Representative Beto O'Rourke, accused the Republican incumbent, Senator Ted Cruz, of existence dishonest with voters, a line of assault President Trump used against Mr. Cruz in the 2016 campaign.

"Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He's going to make upwards positions and votes that I've never held or have always taken. He'south dishonest. That's why the president called him, 'Lyin' Ted.' And it's why the nickname stuck, because it's true." "It's clear Congressman O'Rourke's pollsters accept told him to come out on the attack. So if he wants to insult me and call me a liar, that's fine. But, y'all know, John Adams famously said, 'Facts are stubborn things.'" "Listen, if you lot take this special relationship with President Trump, then where is the result of that? Yous are all talk and no action."

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During their debate, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, Representative Beto O'Rourke, defendant the Republican incumbent, Senator Ted Cruz, of existence dishonest with voters, a line of attack President Trump used against Mr. Cruz in the 2016 entrada. Credit Credit... Pool photo past Tom Reel

SAN ANTONIO — Representative Beto O'Rourke of Texas, who has fallen behind Senator Ted Cruz in the polls in their hotly contested Senate race, turned sharply ambitious in their second debate on Tuesday nighttime equally he attacked Mr. Cruz's honesty and character while the ii clashed over abortion, climate change and other red-versus-blueish divides.

Using phrases like "Ted Cruz is for Ted Cruz" and "all talk and no activity," and questioning whether the senator had delivered whatsoever results for Texas, Mr. O'Rourke took his near personal shot at his opponent when Mr. Cruz expressed skepticism about climate alter and argued that Mr. O'Rourke supported higher taxes on oil. The congressman invoked an attack line that Donald J. Trump had used against Mr. Cruz in the 2016 presidential race.

"Senator Cruz is non going to exist honest with you," Mr. O'Rourke said. "He's dishonest, and it'due south why the president called him Lyin' Ted, and information technology'south why the nickname stuck — because it's truthful."

"It's clear Congressman O'Rourke'due south pollsters have told him to come out on the attack," Mr. Cruz replied.

In their first contend last month, Mr. O'Rourke was largely reserved and anything but ambitious. He had problem humid down his expansive responses into memorable zingers, and his just-good-plenty performance near likely played at to the lowest degree some role in Mr. Cruz's recent lead in the polls. On Tuesday, nonetheless, Mr. O'Rourke was far sharper and edgier. He sweated more, used his hands and arms to punctuate his arguments and repeatedly bandage Mr. Cruz as dishonest, ineffective, more focused on running for president than representing Texas and beholden to corporate interests.

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Beto O'Rourke, Ted Cruz and a (Possibly) Changing Texas | 2018 Midterms

In cerise ruby-red Texas, a Democrat hasn't been elected to a statewide position since 1994. Merely ahead of this twelvemonth's midterm ballot, a Senate race between an unflinching liberal and a religious conservative is unexpectedly close.

Texas: Border walls, oil wells, Alone Star beer, margaritas, the deep red Panhandle, sky-bluish Austin. A Senate race between an unflinching liberal with a punk-rock past and a God-fearing evangelical Tea Partier with a affair for country music. "These are my people." Over all, Texas is red. Like large, bright, Republican scarlet. A Democrat hasn't been elected to a statewide position since this song was at the elevation of the charts. "I saw the sign—" Simply things are irresolute. Trump won Texas by smaller margins than the last two Republican presidential candidates. The state is becoming more diverse, less white, and the Autonomous candidate'due south fund-raising numbers so far — astronomical. And then who are these guys? This is Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat. You and 44 1000000 other people may have seen him in this viral video, talking about Due north.F.L. players kneeling for the national canticle. "They take a knee to bring our attending and our focus to this trouble to ensure that we fix information technology." He used to be in a band, lived in a loft in Brooklyn, has been out on the route with Willie Nelson. He's Mr. Congeniality and has that kind of Kennedyesque swoon gene that cornball Democrats require. You can catch him driving all over Texas oftentimes alive-streaming. "Let me see if I can put this —" Also, he'due south become a bit of a media darling. "People are pretty excited." And and so there'south Ted Cruz, incumbent Republican candidate with a successful rail record in Texas. He loves playing upwards the whole Texas thing. Cowboy boots? Cowboy boots? Check. Gun? Gun? Cheque. Prayer? Prayer? Bank check. "We can render to our nation's founding rituals." He rode the Tea Party wave right into the Senate in 2012 and so ran for president in 2016. Cruz supports Trump'south border wall and is against a path to citizenship for and then-called Dreamers. O'Rourke: Pro-immigrants' rights and anti-border wall. He also wants more than gun restrictions, similar universal background checks. He wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. And legalize weed. And in the end, it's Cruz's race to lose as long as he can go along the new Autonomous poster boy at bay.

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In ruby red Texas, a Democrat hasn't been elected to a statewide position since 1994. But ahead of this twelvemonth's midterm election, a Senate race between an unflinching liberal and a religious bourgeois is unexpectedly shut. Credit Credit... Illustration by Drew Jordan

In one substitution, Mr. Cruz was asked about Mr. Trump's trade war. Mr. Cruz said he was against information technology, and pivoted to talk most Mr. O'Rourke's remarks about impeaching the president, calling his opponent "the only Democratic Senate nominee in the country who has explicitly come out for impeaching President Trump." He added that if Mr. O'Rourke had his way, there would exist "two years of a partisan circus" aimed at ousting the president.

Mr. O'Rourke replied, "It's really interesting to hear you talk about a partisan circus, later your concluding six years in the U.Due south. Senate." Then he switched gears as well, to talk about Mr. Cruz'due south relationship with Mr. Trump, who is coming to Houston on Monday to hold a rally for Mr. Cruz.

"Listen," Mr. O'Rourke said, "if yous have this special relationship with President Trump, so where is the result of that? You are all talk and no action."

Just Mr. Cruz largely kept his cool, and even chuckled out loud at some of Mr. O'Rourke'southward attacks. He continued to paint Mr. O'Rourke equally a liberal who is too radical for Texas and who wants to steer the state abroad from the low-taxation, low-regulation mantra that Republicans view equally the key to the Texas economy'due south success.

"Have you noticed in this debate he doesn't talk about what he has accomplished in Congress?" Mr. Cruz said. "Because he has scored political points rather than accomplishing victories for the people of Texas."

Merely once did Mr. Cruz grow audibly frustrated — but that was aimed at 1 of the two moderators, Jason Whitely, a senior reporter at WFAA-Boob tube in Dallas. Responding to a question well-nigh incivility in politics, Mr. Cruz fabricated a point nearly partisanship, maxim, "There is an anger, there is a rage on the far left." When Mr. Whitely tried to interject, Mr. Cruz said sharply, "Don't interrupt me, Jason," and and then continued discussing his views on treating others with respect.

"The personal attacks, the going to the gutter that is so common in politics, I've tried non to engage in," Mr. Cruz said.

The displays of fireworks bated, there was no single significant moment in the debate that seemed certain to aid or hurt the two candidates with about three weeks to become to Election Day. Mr. O'Rourke was clearly aiming to energize his base of operations of voters and trying to remind Texas independents and moderates of misgivings they may have almost Mr. Cruz.

On Wednesday morn, President Trump weighed in on the argue, declaring his support for Mr. Cruz and calling Mr. O'Rourke "a flake'' who was "not in the same league with Ted Cruz.''

The two candidates clashed from the showtime question, about the security of voting and whether Congress should regulate social media companies. Mr. O'Rourke said that voting and the ballot box were "under set on" more than "whatsoever other time in our nation'due south history" and argued that Senator Cruz had not done enough to finance greater election security measures. He also criticized Mr. Trump'due south relationship with Russia'due south president, Vladimir V. Putin, given Russian'due south interference in the 2016 American election, and pledged to "stand upwardly" to Mr. Trump while saying Mr. Cruz had not.

Mr. Cruz said he had supported legislation to practise more to protect American voting, but likewise focused on "political bias of big tech, of Facebook and Google" and said he was concerned that social media was not protecting gratis political speech on social media.

Mr. O'Rourke likewise criticized Mr. Cruz for opposing the Violence Against Women Human activity, while the senator presented himself as a stiff supporter of the #MeToo movement and victims of sexual assault and misconduct.

"The #MeToo motility has washed an incredible amount of expert for our country," Mr. Cruz said. "I believe anybody, women and men, girls and boys, demand to be protected." As the father of two girls, and the son and hubby of women who had careers, he noted that he helped lead a Senate effort to finish clandestine settlements by members of Congress over sexual harassment complaints.

Mr. Cruz and Mr. O'Rourke were facing off for the 2d and perhaps final time, as Mr. Cruz seeks to widen his atomic number 82 in the polls and Mr. O'Rourke tries to restore dimming Democratic hopes that he tin can unseat Mr. Cruz and pull off the biggest upset in modern Texas political history.

The boxing between Mr. Cruz and Mr. O'Rourke has captivated and polarized Texas and drawn enormous interest nationwide, with the candidates raising far more than money than those in typical Senate races. Mr. O'Rourke raised a record-breaking $38.ane million in the terminal three months lone, the most of whatsoever Senate candidate ever. And he has enjoyed a kind of popular-culture glory status, getting a shout-out from the young El Paso soul singer Khalid at the American Music Awards and jamming on stage with Willie Nelson. On Thursday, he will announced in a alive town-hall event on CNN in the border city of McAllen.

Mr. O'Rourke's CNN boondocks hall has become a contested issue. The Cruz campaign asked CNN to change the format of the event into a town-hall debate and to allow the two candidates to hold their third debate at that place. In a letter to CNN, Jeff Roe, Mr. Cruz's campaign managing director, wrote that if they were going to spend an hour "on national cable news discussing and debating the issues of import to Texas voters, we believe it should be on a phase with our opponent."

The network had originally invited both candidates to participate in a boondocks hall, with each candidate appearing separately on the phase in private segments. The Cruz entrada had accepted simply later backed out, the network said. CNN said in response to the Cruz campaign request that it would catechumen the event into a fence if the O'Rourke entrada agreed to the change.

It was unclear if Mr. O'Rourke was going to agree. Although three debates were originally scheduled, one of them set for Houston was postponed, and it was uncertain whether it would be rescheduled. It seemed possible that Tuesday night's debate was the final ane.

For weeks, several polls showed the two candidates running about even, an boggling feat in Texas, where Democrats accept failed to win any statewide offices since 1994. Simply lately the polls have shown Mr. Cruz edifice a lead over Mr. O'Rourke. One Quinnipiac University poll terminal week showed Mr. Cruz alee by nine percentage points and another by The New York Times Outcome and Siena College had Mr. Cruz up by viii points.

Texas Democrats remain cautiously optimistic, with some more than cautious and others more optimistic.

Few, if any, Democrats running statewide in Texas in contempo decades have generated the corporeality of enthusiasm that Mr. O'Rourke has. In the 2014 race for governor, the political party'due south nominee, Wendy Davis, enjoyed an initial wave of excitement only then trailed the Republican, Greg Abbott, by up to 12 percentage points in the polls four months before the election, and some Democrats were publicly and privately grumbling about her campaign'southward missteps.

Mr. O'Rourke is running a tighter race and a smoother campaign, effectively turning much of his life into a social-media live stream, allowing his supporters to picket him equally he drives between events and gets a haircut.

"He's probably running the best campaign that's been run in Texas in my lifetime," said Garry Mauro, a sometime state state commissioner who was the chairman of Hillary Clinton'due south campaign in Texas in 2016. "I'yard on his Facebook. At one time yesterday he had xiii,000 people watching him bulldoze in the auto."

On Tuesday night, Mr. O'Rourke was lucky to have made information technology into the studios at all. Before the fence, the parking attendant outside the KENS 5 telly station was surprised when Mr. O'Rourke pulled in driving his own vehicle. He regularly drives himself candidature around the country. Debate night was no unlike.

"If you don't accept a pass, I don't know how to get you lot through," the attendant told Mr. O'Rourke. His wife, Amy O'Rourke, sat in the motorcar, joined by staff members. They were alive-streaming the bulldoze to the debate on his Facebook page.

"This is how you know information technology's real," Mr. O'Rourke said. After some consultation, the parking attendant sent Mr. O'Rourke in.

"Thank you," Mr. O'Rourke said. "Cheers for your service."

He rolled up the window.

"We passed the first hurdle," Mr. O'Rourke added.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/us/politics/cruz-beto-debate.html

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