Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) criticized his opponent Beto O’Rourke for claiming that Amber Guyger, the officer who fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment last week, should be fired. According to The Root , Cruz feels that people should not be so eager to judge in police shooting situations.
“It’s possible what happened was a horrifying and horrific misunderstanding, or it may be something else,” said Cruz on Sunday, in an interview with Fox 26 Houston .
“And that’s why we have a legal justice system, to actually learn what the facts are and learn what happened. I wish Beto O’Rourke and Democrats weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer, always attack the police officer.”
But O’Rourke feels that Guyger should be fired for her actions. The officer claimed that she thought she was entering her own apartment and thought that Jean was an intruder.
When speaking about the incident at a rally, O’Rourke felt that Guyger should be terminated. He said:
“I don’t understand, given the actions, how anyone can come to any other conclusion.”
But Cruz, who has consistently sided with law enforcement in cases of police brutality, said: “She may have been in the wrong. She’s facing legal proceedings and if a jury of her peers concludes that she behaved wrongly, then she’ll face the consequences,” but he again emphasized that people should not be so quick to jump to conclusions about why Guyger shot Jean.
Additionally, The Root reported that Cruz made fun O’Rourke’s name in a jingle he wrote for his ad campaigns. O’Rourke’s first name is Robert but he goes by “Beto,” a nickname given to him as a child. Cruz wrote a jingle making fun of Beto: “Liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin.”
Cruz was called out on his jingle in an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN.
“You didn’t like that dirty pool when you were running for president and the president called you ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ you didn’t like that kind of tactic. Your name is Rafael; you go by Ted, but your middle name is Edward,” Cuomo said. “He went the other way and has a more ethnic version of his name—why go after him? You’re both doing the same thing.”
Cruz, whose legal name is Rafael Edward Cruz, acknowledged Cuomo’s comments but said that the jingle was just about having a sense of humor. When asked about the comments in a separate interview, O’Rourke took the high road and said that he was not interested in name-calling and that he’d rather focus on the future and the issues affecting the country.
