Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke has launched a credible campaign to topple incumbent Republican U.S. Senator from Texas Ted Cruz. With a recent poll showing the two statistically tied, Texas Republicans are worried — so worried, in fact, that they’ve reached back decades for something to attack O’Rourke with.
In the wake of O’Rourke declining to debate the incumbent Texas Senator this week, the official Texas GOP Twitter account posted a copy of a decades old mugshot to go after the three-term Congressman.
They wrote:
‘There’s always the chance that Robert “Beto” O’Rourke won’t debate Senator Cruz because he got into a hazy situation…’
There’s always the chance that Robert “Beto” O’Rourke won’t debate Senator Cruz because he got into a hazy situation… pic.twitter.com/4nmd42AEkl
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 29, 2018
The mugshot is from an arrest for drunk driving in 1998, some 20 years ago. O’Rourke has acknowledged the incident and moved on — but Texas Republicans are unwilling to. The El Paso Democrat, for his part, called the incident a “serious mistake for which there is no excuse.”
In addition to the jab at his background of brief legal trouble, the Texas GOP also attacked O’Rourke for aspects of his social life. They’ve resorted with their tweets to personal attacks, ignoring opportunities for any substantive debates with the Democrat.
So Beto has been ducking debates with Senator Ted Cruz. We can’t imagine why, but we do have a few ideas… pic.twitter.com/3n2HtwY9pQ
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 28, 2018
In the first of their series of posts including O’Rourke’s mugshot, they included a photo of the popular Democrat with a skateboard. Recently, a video went viral of the Congressman skating through a Whataburger parking lot, which the Republicans no doubt had in mind.
After the above post, they took a jab at Cruz’s opponent via an image of him with his old band, Foss. On that photo, they mockingly added a caption:
‘Sorry, can’t debate. We have a gig.’
Maybe Beto can’t debate Ted Cruz because he already had plans… pic.twitter.com/LdqKTh3yK4
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 28, 2018
The O’Rourke camp didn’t rush to respond to the posts.
It’s not even as though the Congressman is flatly refusing to debate the Senator he’s challenging. Instead, he’s simply seeking to find a common ground between his desires for the debate schedule and the Cruz camp’s proposals.
At the 2018 Texas Disability Issues Forum, O’Rourke told those assembled that although an August 31 debate was off the table, he’s “convinced there will be a number of debates.”
He explained that Cruz’s team has “attempted to dictate” key aspects to the debate schedule, and he’s not about to jump on board with that.
‘We’re working through those differences, and we’re trying to introduce more of a collaborative style to the negotiations than he may be used to. And so we’re confident that out of that, we’re going to come to something good.’
In the meantime, the Texas GOP has petulantly resorted to these personal attacks.
Their feigned outrage is entirely one-sided. When Cruz was a young person, he was caught on camera quipping that his goals in life include being in a “teen tit film” and “world domination.” However, it’s not as though the O’Rourke camp is dragging out that old footage and using it as part of its platform.
Throughout recent decades, the Republican Party’s very leader, Donald Trump, has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting numerous women. He has not owned up to those crimes.
In the middle of this and everything else, though, the Texas GOP prefers to stick to tweeting like an angry high school bully.
Twitter’s response is below.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
