September 21, 2018

Here’s the Most Memorable Moment of the First Texas Senate Debate

“True to form.”

Beto and Ted

Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News/Associated Press

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If you wanted to summarize Friday’s Texas Senate debate between Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in just one exchange, it would probably be the last one. Just before closing statements, at the end of an often-contentious 50 minutes, the moderators from the Dallas Morning News and NBC’s Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate asked each candidate to say something nice about the other.

O’Rourke said he believed Cruz was working sincerely to make the world better for his young kids. Here’s Cruz’s response:

“True to form.”

The next debate is on September 30th in Houston.

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We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

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