Sen. Ted Cruz, Beto O'Rourke Face Off In Contentious Debate

AUSTIN, TEXAS — As expected, the first debate between Sen. Ted Cruz and congressman Beto O'Rourke proved to be a spirited exchange in Dallas as the two political rivals fielded questions related to domestic policy issues.

The debate encompassed a wide range of topics packed into an hour-long format as audience members assessed the two men now locked in one of the most-watched political races in the country. A few times, the exchange was testy as O'Rourke defended himself against accusations made by Cruz painted with a broad rhetorical brush: That the El Paso, Texas, congressman is not supportive of the 2nd Amendment safeguarding gun ownership; that he is anti-cop; even suggesting at one point his Democratic rival is anti-prayer.

Known for his rhetorical flourishes in the throes of oratory, Cruz suggested days before the debate that O'Rourke would ban barbecue — that staple of all staples in Texas — if he were to win the Senate race. While not rooted in plausibility, it was a hyperbolic dig at a perceived liberal worldview often deployed by conservatives to score political points. The dire meat-less prediction came after Cruz suggested O'Rourke was intent on transforming Texas into a state more like California, complete with greater amounts of tofu and hair dye.

While the Cruz camp later insisted their candidate was joking about the envisined barbecue ban, Cruz doubled down this past Sunday when members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) descended outside the site of one of his recent campaign stops to offer samples of tofu made to taste just like meat.

The clearly hyperbolic and allegorical tactic has proved effective for Cruz, whose political rise was fueled by Tea Party fervor when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2013. While the dystopian vision of a barbecue-bereft landscape is something that would never materialize, such messaging resonates powerfully with a conservative base in Texas suspicious of progressives amid the increasingly polarizing nature of today's politics.

During Friday's debate, that Cruz penchant for theatrics was in full display. When speaking of issues with patriotic underpinnings, Cruz waxed eloquently with crescendo delivery in expressing his national pride. In contrast, O'Rourke cut a more relaxed figure albeit occasionally bristling at the incumbent's more outlandish characterizations of his political record.

From immigration to tax reform, the two combatants duked it out rhetorically. While members of the audience were repeatedly asked not to interject with cheers and applause during the formal debate, they did so anyway. Both men got their share of non-sanctioned applause and cheers.

Immigration: Cruz calls for deportation, O'Rourke seeks nuanced approach

Nary a moment was wasted after the moderators' introduction of the two candidates to the audience. Right out of the gate, the first issue for discussion was a biggie: Immigration. Cruz, the incumbent Texas senator, is adamantly opposed to providing a pathway to citizenship to the nearly 12 million immigrants living in this country illegally. The son of Cuban immigrants, Cruz has perplexed some political observers in light of his cultural lineage.

Conversely, O'Rourke, a congressman from the predominantly Hispanic city of El Paso, Texas, favors a more nuanced approach in providing members of the diaspora a citizenship pathway if eligible. In defending his position, O'Rourke noted the impracticality of deporting 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants en masse as Cruz has suggested — an idea that has recently gained traction in the GOP given the anti-immigrant stances of Donald Trump.

O'Rourke expressed a desire to grant citizenship to so-called Dreamers — young people brought into this country by their parents as children protected, for the time being, by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative that was implemented under the Obama administration. Nationally, some 800,000 of those youthful arrivals are protected by DACA, including some 124,000 located in Texas.

O'Rourke called for Republicans and Democrats alike to come together to "rewrite immigration laws in our own image" while ensuring a path to citizenship to DACA recipients.

"And to ensure that we begin by freeing Dreamers from the fear of deportation by making them U.S. citizens so they can contribute to their full potential to the success of not just themselves and their families but to this country. The economists who've studied it have said that we will lose hundreds of billions of dollars to the negative if we deport them, we will gain hundreds of billions to the positive if we keep them here. Sen. Cruz has promised to deport each and every single Dreamer. That cannot be the way Texas leads on this important issue."

Cruz had a decidedly different stance, framing his strident position as it relates to immigration as a national safeguard.

"You know, this issue represents a stark divide between Congressman O'Rourke and me," Cruz said. "My views on immigration are simple, and I've summed them up many times in just four words: Legal good, illegal bad. I think the vast major of Texans agree with that. I think when it relates to immigration, we need to do everything humanly possible to secure the border. That means building a wall; that means technology; that means infrastructure; that means boots on the ground. And we can do all that at the same time that we are welcoming and celebrating legal immigrants."

The senator pointed to his own familial experience in underscoring his preferred vision: "There is a right way to come to this country," he said. "You wait in line, you follow the rules like my father did in 1957 when he came from Cuba. He fled oppression, and he came to Texas. He came seeking freedom.We're a state and we're a nation built by immigrants, but it's striking that Congressman O'Rourke over and over and over again, his focus seems to be on fighting for illegal immigrants and forgetting the millions of Americans. You know, Americans are dreamers also, and granting U.S. citizenship to 12 million people who are here illegally I think is a serious mistake. I think the congressman is out of step with Texas on that."

In rebuttal, O'Rourke pointed to Cruz's record of supporting what many view as draconian — and expensive — measures amid heightened anti-immigration rhetoric.

"I'll tell you about being out of step with Texas," O'Rourke said. "Senator Cruz has sponsored legislatin that would have this country build a 2,000-mile wall, 30 feet high at a cost of $30 billion. And that wall will not be built on the international border between the United States and Mexico, which is the center line of the Rio Grande. It will be built on someone's farm, someone's ranch, someone's property, someone's homestead, using the power of eminent domain to take their property at a time of record security and safety on the border."

O'Rourke pointed to his own experience in bipartisanship in trying to achieve a reasonable solution to the problem of immigration: "Sen. John Cornyn and I introduced legislation that would invest in our ports of entry where the vast majority of everyone and everything that comes into this country first crosses. Knowing who and what comes in here makes us safer, and allows us to lead on the issues of immigration reform."

Moderator Julie Fine, political reporter at NBC 5, returned to the subject of the Dreamers, asking O'Rourke if he believes citizenship would be granted to the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

"There are millions of people in this country who are working the toughest jobs," O'Rourke began. "We were in Roscoe, at a cotton gin with 24 jobs —every single one of them worked by someone who came to this country, not a person born in Roscoe or nearby Sweetwater willing to do that work. That's the story of Texas and of this country. We need to bring people out of the shadows, allow them to get right by law, and, yes, there should be an earned path to citizenship.

"The alternative, as Sen. Cruz has proposed, is to deport 11 million people from this country. Imagine the cost, imagine the stain on our conscience going forward for the generations who look back at this moment."

Law enforcement: O'Rourke refutes claim he called police the 'new Jim Crow'

The second question related to law enforcement also laid bare an ideological divide. In light of the recent spate of killings of black citizens at the hands of police, law enforcement in this country has come under greater scrutiny. Yet for some, even the slightest hint of critique against police officers offers a chance at condemnation without allowing for argumentative nuance.

The country now appears divided between those who are fervently supportive of police — notwithstanding the few bad apples whose killings make national headlines — and those seeking reform among the ranks in the way of responsible enforcement.

That divide in philosophy as it relates to law enforcement was in full display Friday night.

On this front, Cruz came out swinging by giving real-life examples of officers recently killed or shot in the line of duty to buttress his support of law enforcement. He then accused O'Rourke of recently having categorized law enforcement as the "modern-day Jim Crow," a claim O'Rourke vehemently denied.

"And just this week, Congressman O'Rourke described police officers as 'modern-day Jim Crow,' " Cruz said. "Let me say something, I have gotten to know police officers all across this state," he added, his voice rising. "That is offensive. Just today, Fort Worth is burying Officer Garret Hull...who was shot in the head risking his life."

Hall, a 17-year Fort Worth police veteran, died last Friday after being shot in the head by a robbery suspect who himself was fatally shot in a gun battle with police. Hull, 40, is survived by his wife and two children, Cruz noted.

"Here today, Officer Bryan Graham, an Arlington SWAT officer, was shot in the head," Cruz continued, referencing the officer who sustained a head wound in a 2102 confrontation with a suspect in a series of aggravated robberies in the Fort Worth area. Than an 11-year veteran of the Arlington Police Department, Graham was shot in the head above the right eye as he other SWAT team members entered the suspect's apartment. A police spokesman at the time said Graham's helmet likely saved his life.

"He is here, and every day police officers risk their lives for us," Cruz said to cheering crowds, referencing the officer who was apparently in the audience. "Officer Graham is standing there...his two kids....he took a bullet in the head protecting us. And let me say right now: I think it is offensive to call police officers 'modern-day Jim Crow.' That is not Texas."

Cruz's rhetorical firebomb appears to have been based on a talk O'Rourke gave at Prairie View A&M University on Thursday night — the evening before the debate. There, O'Rourke discussed criminal justice reform while alluding broadly to a perceived "new Jim Crow" relating to disproportionate numbers of African Americans in the nation's prison system. At the event in Prairie View, Texas, just outside Houston, the congressman gave a historical overview while discussing a book written by Michelle Alexander titled "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."

Denying the accusation of having likened police tactics to those of the Jim Crow era, O'Rourke mentioned his uncle Raymond, a former sheriff's deputy in El Paso, who he said taught him to shoot while instilling in him a sense of responsibility as it relates to gun ownership.

"What Sen. Cruz said is simply untrue," O'Rourke said. "I did not call police officers modern-day Jim Crow. And I, as well as Sen. Cruz and everyone here, mourn the passing of Officer Hall in Fort Worth."

He said his uncle taught him the virtues of community service. "But he also taught me what it means to serve everyone, to be sworn to protect and serve everyone in a community, not just some people. With the tragic shooting death of Botham Jean you have another unarmed black man killed in this country by law enforcement."

He referred to the 26-year-old black man fatally shot Sept. 6 in his Dallas apartment by police officer Amber Guyger, who later claimed she had entered the man's home by mistake believing it was her own, killing the man she believed was an intruder.

"Now, no member of law enforcement wants that to happen. No member of the community wants that to happen. But we've got to do something better than what we've been doing so far. If African Americans represent 13 percent of the population in this country, yet they represent 1/3 of those who are shot by law enforcement, then we have something wrong. If we have the largest prison population on the face of the planet, and it is disproportionately comprised of people of color, we have something wrong in this country.

"Republicans and Democrats should be able to work together with law enforcement and members of the community for real, lasting, meaningful criminal justice reform."

Debate moderator Gromer Jeffers, a Dallas Morning News political writer, asked Cruz why he was so quick to defend officer Guyger in the aftermath of the shooting even after the officer was charged.

"Why did you caution Rep. O'Rourke and others not to jump to conclusions in this case when the Texas Rangers and the Dallas County DA said she committed manslaughter?" Jeffers asked, referencing the officer now charged with Botham's killing.

"What happened to Mr. Jean was horrific," Cruz began. "Nobody should be in their own home and be shot and killed in their own home. It was tragic. Now the officer, as I understand it, has contended that it was a tragic mistake. It was a case where she thought she was in her own apartment, she thought he was an intruder."

But Cruz conceded he, too, doesn't know all the facts in the case: "Right now, today, I don't know what happened that evening," he said. "Congressman O'Rourke doesn't know what happened that evening. But he immediately called for firing the officer. I think that's a mistake. Look we have a crime justice system, a criminal justice system that will determine what happened that night. If she violated the law, if she did that intentionally, she'll face the consequences. But without knowing the facts, before a trial, before a jury's heard the evidence, Congressman O'Rourke is ready to convict her, to fire her. And I'll tell ya, it's a troubling pattern. Over and over, Congressman O'Rourke, when faced with an issue of police and law enforcement, he sides against the police."

To support his claim, Cruz said O'Rourke voted against a measure that would have provided body armor for sheriffs and has expressed a desire to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Returning to police shootings, Cruz accused O'Rourke of claiming more Caucasian officers are shooting African Americans, something he said was vetted and determined not to be true.

Cruz called O'Rourke's claims "profoundly irresponsible" as they divide races and foment police mistrust, noting specific police funerals he's lately attended while serving as senator. "That rhetoric does damage. That rhetoric divides us on race, it inflames hatred. We should be bringing people together."

O'Rourke responded: "This is why people don't like Washington, D.C.," O'Rourke said. "You've just said something I did not say and attributed it to me," he added to thunderous cheers, although declining to repeat the "slander" he accused Cruz of having made. "This is your trick in the trade," O'Rourke told Cruz. "To confuse and to incite based on fear and not to speak the truth. This is a very serious issue, and it warrants the truth and the facts."

Gun violence: 'Thoughts and prayers are just not going to cut it anymore'

The issue of preventing gun violence in schools, O'Rourke said, should not be a partisan one but a matter on which both parties should coalesce: “I could care less about either party, at this moment, at this deeply divided, highly polarized time in our history.”

As it relates to mass shootings, "thoughts and prayers are just not going to cut it anymore," O'Rourke told Cruz, referencing an oft-repeated mantra of Republican lawmakers who tend to accept the most money from the gun lobby while resisting gun control efforts.

Cruz shot back, doubling down on the religion-underpinned GOP staple: "I'm sorry you don't like thoughts and prayers. I will pray for anyone to be out of harm's way."

Protests during the national anthem

The issue of NFL players silently protesting police brutality and other affronts disproportionately affecting the black community was another topic for discussion. O'Rourke likened the protests as an offshoot of the civil rights movement that peaked in the 1960s.

Cruz countered by noting he became a Republican partly because of his party's support of civil rights ("the party of Lincoln," he referenced) while decrying the Democrats in the South called Dixiecrats supportive of Jim Crow. He noticeably omitted mention of another Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson who signed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act during his presidential tenure.

Cruz conjectured that were Martin Luther King Jr. still alive, he would be against protests during the anthem given his own love for the American flag. Cruz suggested players should protest in a manner that doesn't "disrespect the flag."

How about some nice parting words?

In the end, moderators asked each candidate to express a positive sentiment about the other. Both men found common ground in being parents of young children and having entered politics at roughly the same time.

O'Rourke gave the first compliment, commending Cruz's work ethic and his family's sacrifice. "I know that he's doing it for one reason," O'Rourke said about Cruz's government service. "He's trying to serve his country."

Cruz was less charitable, wrapping his compliment in a dig to his rival's progressive stance. To advance the point, the senator likened O'Rourke to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and the elder statesman's penchant for socialistic ideals: "Bernie Sanders believes in what he's fighting for," Cruz began. "He believes in socialism. Now, I think what he's fighting for doesn't work. But I think you are absolutely sincere, like Bernie, that you believe in expanding government and higher taxes. And I commend you for fighting for what you believe in."

The backhanded nature of the compliment wasn't lost on O'Rourke: "True to form," he deadpanned to mild laughter from the audience.

Friday's encounter was the first of three planned debates in a state Senate race that has become surprisingly competitive. Despite the state's red status — where Republicans have long held ironclad control of the Legislature — the race has become real horse race, with O'Rourke either dead even or within striking distance as polls have indicated.

The next two are scheduled Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio.

After the debate, Cruz thanked his followers on Twitter while urging constituents to retain the Republican hold. "Thanks for tuning in to tonight's #TXSenateDebate," he wrote. "Let's #KeepTexasRed them to keep Texas red."

For his part, O'Rourke was back on the stump. As part of his campaign, O'Rourke has made much of having traveled to each of the 254 counties in Texas as he reaches out to the electorate ahead of the November election. "Only one of us has been to each county in Texas," he said during the debate. "Within months of being sworn to serve as your senator, Ted Cruz was not in Texas. He was in Iowa. He visited every single one of the 99 counties of that state."

True to form, he told his followers on Twitter that he was back to campaigning: "Thunderstorms delayed flight so we're just driving from Dallas to San Antonio instead. See you tomorrow, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Laredo."

Early voting begins on Oct. 22 with Election Day on Nov. 6.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The palpable excitement over tonight's first televised debate between Sen. Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke exhibits the kind of no-holds-barred enthusiasm one would normally associate with watching a high school football game under the Friday night lights.

Instead, the political contest has galvanized supporters on both sides of the ideological spectrum, with watch parties scheduled all across Texas.

But if you don't feel like going out, preferring to make some popcorn and watch from the less cacophonous comforts of home, the event will be live streamed by various media outlets, including NBC 5/KXAS, of the the presenters of the broadcast.

Scheduled to start at 6 p.m., the sure-to-be-spirited discussion between the two candidates is the first of a trio of such debates. The next two are scheduled Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio.

Tonight's debate is being presented by SMU, NBC 5/KXAS and The Dallas Morning News. The moderators will be NBC 5 political reporter Julie Fine and Dallas Morning News political writer Gromer Jeffers. Candidates will speak before a 240-person audience.

Don't forget: Early voting begins on Oct. 22 with Election Day on Nov. 6.

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