Cruz, O'Rourke trade attacks during testy 1st Texas debate

Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke repeatedly traded barbs during a testy first debate Friday night, underscoring how a Texas Senate race that long looked like a cakewalk for the conservative incumbent now appears to be anything but one.

Cruz went on the attack moments after stepping on the stage, charging that his opponent suggested that police officers embodied "modern-day Jim Crow" laws in response to a question about a Dallas policewoman who shot and killed her unarmed, black neighbor after mistakenly entering his apartment, thinking it was her own.

O'Rourke responded that the accusation was "simply not true." Cruz appeared to be referring to O'Rourke previously suggesting that inherent biases in the criminal justice system promote racism.

Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, left, and Democratic U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke, right, take part in their first debate for the Texas U.S. Senate in Dallas, Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (Tom FoxThe Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)

Later, when Cruz tried to say O'Rourke wanted to abolish the Second Amendment, the Democrat said it wasn't so, and the candidates sniped while the moderators pleaded for them to stop and for the audience to stop hooting. O'Rourke said Texas was ready for a senator who will protect the Second Amendment while imposing small restrictions to save lives and prevent mass shootings. He suggested those were supported by "gunowners and non-gunowners alike," but when he said the common GOP refrain after gun violence of offering "thoughts and prayers" wasn't enough, Cruz bristled.

"I'm sorry you don't like thoughts and prayers," he said. "I will pray for anyone in harm's way."

Cruz was also asked whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's accuser could say anything that might make him question his support for the nomination. Cruz said "absolutely," but didn't elaborate while calling the allegations serious.

Democratic U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, in Dallas, Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (Tom FoxThe Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)

Democrats have long dreamed of flipping heavily Hispanic Texas, the country's largest red state, and transforming the national electoral map. O'Rourke is giving up his El Paso-based U.S. House seat to try and upset Cruz, even though his party hasn't won any of Texas' two dozen-plus statewide office races since 1994, America's longest political losing streak.

The debate at Dallas' Southern Methodist University also saw Cruz criticize O'Rourke's past support for legalizing marijuana, evoking his older half-sister, Miriam, who died of a drug overdose. O'Rourke, meanwhile, has been open about his 1998 arrest for drunken driving in El Paso, but said for the first time Friday that he did not try to flee the scene, as a witness suggested in the police report. He called the incident a "terrible mistake"

The pair will square off again next weekend in Cruz's hometown of Houston, and a third and final debate is set for San Antonio three weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

Cruz didn't speak to the media afterward except to say he thought the debate "went great." But O'Rourke said the senator "has a tendency to mischaracterize a position."

"If he's talking about NFL players kneeling during the national anthem at a football game to call attention to injustice in this country, he'll talk about flag burning," O'Rourke said. "If we're talking about ending the war on drugs, the war on people, and some people over other people in this country, and ending the prohibition on marijuana, he'll talk about legalizing heroin and cocaine. No one wants to do any of that."

An ex-punk rocker who has attracted glowing attention from national liberal circles for his high-energy campaign and monster fundraising, O'Rourke has been mentioned as a possible 2020 Democratic vice presidential candidate and even a 2020 White House hopeful. Though he may not knock off Cruz, the argument goes, a close loss could only further boost his national profile.

O'Rourke, however, has repeatedly insisted he has no political plans beyond this race.

He's visited all 254 Texas counties, including areas that Democrats long ago gave up on — a fact he mentioned repeatedly during the debate. Cruz dismissed many such visits as photo-ops.

Cruz finished second in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. But a variety of polls show that O'Rourke is staying within striking distance — prompting Cruz to go negative in ads lately, attacking his opponent for defending NFL players' right to protest during the national anthem and his opposition to the Trump administration's hardline stance on immigration.

President Donald Trump has announced that he'll rally in Texas for his once bitter rival Cruz next month — previously unthinkable in a state where Republicans usually rack up landslide victories.

A truck mounted with a portable billboard of a February 2016 Trump tweet declaring, "Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished nothing for them?" was parked near Friday's debate site. It's frequently hit Texas political events since Trump announced plans to visit.

Asked Friday about Trump's 2016 criticism, which included making fun of Cruz's wife's appearance and suggesting that his Cuban-born father had a hand in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Cruz said, "I could have chosen to make it about myself," but instead he said he worked with Trump to further Texas interests.

That ignored Cruz drawing the ire of many Texas conservatives for refusing to endorse Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention. He eventually supported his party's candidate, though.

O'Rourke criticized Cruz during the debate for failing to rebuke Trump administration tariffs against China, which he said would hurt Texas trade interests.

Things are likely to stay nasty in coming weeks.

Asked what he admired about O'Rourke, Cruz managed to compare him to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. O'Rourke drew laughs by replying simply of Cruz: "True to form."

JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.

The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.

Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.

A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)