welcome back to the mcallen performing arts center and cnn s town hall with beto o rourke. for our viewers just joining us, senator ted cruz declined our town hall invitation. and congressman, i want to ask about the tone in this race here in texas. it changed this week. you ve been saying that people are sick of the pettiness and the smallness in politics, yet during tuesday s debate that you had with senator cruz, you took a page right out of president trump s playbook and you called senator cruz lying ted. why did you do that? yeah. so, there have been untold dollars spent on tv ads that are lies, that are dishonest, trying to scare you about me, trying to incite people based on fear. i went through a whole debate at smu with senator cruz where he made up one story after another, and so at the very outset, when he began with yet another lie, i decided that i could either
though we are living it every single day as you are here in mcallen. so, it s very much a part of who i am. ulysses and molly and henry go to mesita elementary, but the difference today is that when amy helps them with their math homework tomorrow night, she may be helping them with their math homework in spanish. the next day, she may be doing it in english. we ve made the most out of our natural advantage in the world, being this binational community. it s full dual language immersion education, not just speaking and reading but writing and computing and breathing and living in both languages, making the most of who we are. i m fiercely proud of that, and i want to share that story with the rest of the country. thanks for the question. appreciate it. congressman, president trump is coming here to texas on monday to campaign with and for your opponent, senator cruz. i want to bring in juan ramirez who has a question about the president. he s a student at the university of texas rio
congressman, i want to ask you a follow-up about it, because sit if you d like. the unemployment rate is at a 49-year low, nationwide. texas was number one in job growth last year, and you mentioned wage growth. so far this year, number one in wage growth. so, how do you explain the fact that the republicans should be replaced? why aren t the donald trump and ted cruz economic policies actually working based on those numbers? because those benefits and that wealth is not flowing to those who create the value in the first place. when you have somebody working full-time and living below the poverty line, that s not just. when you have schoolteachers in this state, half of whom work in a second or third job just to make ends meet, given the fact that their primary job is perhaps the most important one in our community and for our
town hall invitation. and congressman, i want to ask about the tone in this race here in texas. it changed this week. you ve been saying that people are sick of the pettiness and the smallness in politics, yet during tuesday s debate that you had with senator cruz, you took a page right out of president trump s playbook and you called senator cruz lying ted. why did you do that? yeah. so, there have been untold dollars spent on tv ads that are lies, that are dishonest, trying to scare you about me, trying to incite people based on fear. i went through a whole debate at smu with senator cruz where he made up one story after another, and so at the very outset, when he began with yet another lie, i decided that i could either spend the rest of the debate responding to every single dishonest thing that he said or i could make sure that everyone understood exactly what he s doing. i said, look, he s dishonest. it s one of the reasons that he got tagged with this nickname and that nickname
the most of who we are. i m fiercely proud of that, and i want to share that story with the rest of the country. thanks for the question. appreciate it. congressman, president trump is coming here to texas on monday to campaign with and for your opponent, senator cruz. i want to bring in juan ramirez who has a question about the president. he s a student at the university of texas rio grande valley. great. hello, congressman. hey, juan. my question would be, what would you say to republicans and independents who are watching tonight and are contemplating about voting for you but are worried that should you win, your main objective as senator would be to try and impeach president trump? i want to tell everyone in this state, regardless of your party affiliation or any other small difference that does not have to define us at this moment, that we can come together. i want to represent all of you. it s why i m here in the rio grande valley, one of the most reliably democratic