Beto O'Rourke Defends Senate Rival Ted Cruz After Restaurant Heckling Incident
Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke defended his rival in November’s Texas Senate race, Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, after the senator and his wife were heckled by protesters during dinner at a Washington restaurant on Monday.
O’Rourke on Tuesday tweeted that it wasn’t “right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant.”
“The Cruz family should be treated with respect,” he wrote.
Not right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant last night because of protesters. The Cruz family should be treated with respect.
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 25, 2018
The activists that heckled Cruz and his wife oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and confronted the senator over his support for Kavanaugh, despite the sexual misconduct allegations that have been lodged against him. The activists chanted, “We believe survivors!”
One woman told Cruz she’s a sexual assault survivor and asked: “Do you believe survivors? Senator, I have a right to know what your position is on Brett Kavanaugh.”
“God bless you, ma’am,” Cruz responded.
While O’Rourke used Twitter to offer Cruz some sympathy, the Republican found himself the target of some taunts on the platform after a Politico article revealed snapshots of him apparently looking at an image of O’Rourke on a flight.
Cruz also took some hits from conservative columnist Bret Stephens, who in a New York Times Op-Ed piece referred to him as a “serpent covered in Vaseline.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
