Texas Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke said Tuesday that President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are inciting fear in Texas voters and called that "bullshit."
O'Rourke got to that word after dodging a question on the progress of a Texas ports bill he said he's working on with Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas).
"So why hasn't it happened, Congressman?" interviewer and Tribune CEO Evan Smith asked.
Instead of answering, O'Rourke said, "Let me tell you what the president and our junior senator are doing right now."
"They want you to be afraid of Mexicans. When they call them rapists and criminals and say only a wall will keep them out," he said.
He then condemned them for scaring Americans about Muslims.
"When they try to scare you about what Muslims are going to do if you give them the chance to come into the country, and it's Cruz saying we should send police patrols into their neighborhoods and Trump saying we should keep them out altogether," he said.
He also condemned them for "trying to scare" Texans on gay couples adopting kids in Texas and transgender kids using their preferred bathroom.
"They are trying to push you based on fear and paranoia and anxiety, and that, Evan, is bullshit. And we've got to be bigger, stronger, and more courageous than that. And I know we are," he said to applause.
O'Rourke is mounting a bid to knock off Cruz in the 2018 election. He raised a strong $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2018.