Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has declined to participate in back to back town halls on CNN with Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), giving O’Rourke an un-countered hour to speak with CNN’s Dana Bash on October 18.
The Cruz campaign says that Cruz offered to participate in a debate moderated by CNN, but that O’Rourke declined, opting to do a town hall alone.
“During the months of negotiations on debates, we offered to have CNN moderate a debate, but Beto’s campaign said no,” said Cruz spokeswoman Emily Miller in an email. “Then — on his own — he accepted a solo ‘town hall’ with CNN. CNN then offered us our own town hall the following time, which we declined. We will be doing activities that engage Texas voters.”
The O’Rourke campaign did not address the debate Cruz allegedly offered.
“CNN offered us the opportunity to hold a town hall and we accepted,” said deputy communications officer Ana Castañón. “They made the same offer to the Cruz campaign.”
The two have a scheduled debate on Tuesday in San Antonio.
O’Rourke and Cruz first debated in late September at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The exchange was frequently tense, ending on a fractious note.
The moderator asked both politicians to say something they admire about each other.
O’Rourke said that his opponent works “very hard” and complimented him for the sacrifice public service requires for Cruz, who has young children.
Cruz responded by calling O’Rourke “passionate” but immediately segued back to political attacks, comparing him to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“True to form,” O’Rourke quipped.
Cruz is a cowardly chickenshit. It is wonderful that he is giving Beto what amounts to an hour of free ads on CNN. Don’t let up, run these bastards out of town!!!
“You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz.” – then Senator Al Franken
What is this fetish that seems to have developed in the news media over recent years requiring candidates to end debates by forcing them to say something nice about their opponents or tell something they admire in them? It happens all the time now. It is the consummate throwaway line, and a total waste of time, which could be better spent asking a serious question.
Cruz is following his hero,5 Deferment Don,by hiding his cowardly ways through big talk but no action.
The NYT live polling has O’Rourke getting clobbered by Cruz, with O’Rourke “having difficulty” dealing with an auto accident issue from years ago. I don’t live in Texas and don’t follow its politics, but it appears that O’Rourke is in much worse shape than Hillary in 2016, who lost the state by 9 points. I know we have Texas TPM commentators and members. It would be great to get some perspective from them.