Getty Ted Cruz vs Beto O'Rourke
Ever since Ted Cruz made a statement about people not “jumping to conclusions” about the Dallas cop Amber Guyger’s shooting of Botham Shem Jean, his words have been headlining national news. During his debate tonight with Beto O’Rourke, Cruz was asked to explain why he said this. He said that Beto was too quick to call for her firing, since they weren’t there that night, and O’Rourke always had a tendency to side against the police.
Twitter is already sharing Cruz’s response, which you can watch in one tweet below.
Ted Cruz says it was “a mistake” for Beto O’Rourke to call for the firing of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger after she shot and killed Botham Jean. No, sir, the mistake was that a police officer killed an unarmed citizen in his own apartment.
Here’s a transcript of part of Cruz’s statement, which you can read above:
What happened to Mr. Jean was horrific. Nobody should be in their own home and shot and killed in their own home. It was tragic. Now the officer as I understand it has contended it was a tragic mistake… She thought she was in her own apartment, she thought he was an intruder. Right now, today, I don’t know what happened that evening. Congressman O’Rourke doesn’t know what happened that evening. But he (Beto) immediately called for firing the officer. I think that’s a mistake. We have 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. Ready to fire her… And I’ll tell you, it’s a troubling pattern. Over and over again…when faced with an issue about police and law enforcement, he (Beto) sides against the police…
Then Cruz added:
Just this week Congressman O’Rourke described law enforcement…as modern day Jim Crow. … That is offensive.”
O’Rourke responded, in part:
I did not call police officers modern day Jim Crow,” Beto disputed. “My Uncle was a Sheriff’s deputy… He was the one who taught me to shoot. … But he also taught me what it means to serve everyone in a community, not just some people. The tragic shooting death of Botham Jean, you have another unarmed black man killed in this country by law enforcement… We’ve got to do something better than what we’ve been doing so far…”
Beto added that we need bipartisan work together for real criminal justice reform, because something is wrong in the U.S.
Some people on Twitter are angry at Cruz again for his statement.
Shame on you, Ted Cruz, for saying that Amber Guyger shouldn’t be fired for killing Botham Jean in a malicious manner. #TXSenateDebate #TXSen #BothamJean #AmberGuyger #BlackLivesMatter
t.co/e3fue7rZdH
Ted Cruz defending the police officer from Dallas who killed Botham Jean 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
And some people are making memes about it already:
RT @keithboykin Ted Cruz says it was “a mistake” for Beto O’Rourke to call for the firing of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger after she shot and killed Botham Jean. No, sir, the mistake was that a police officer killed an unarmed citizen in his own apartment.
Not everyone is angry at Cruz though.
Cruz asked about #BothamJean shooting death. “What happened was horrific” and said criminal justice system will determine what happens to Ofc. Amber Guyger. #Fox4Elections
And some are just questioning the logic of what he said:
This is a developing story.