Beto O'Rourke ridicules Ted Cruz for posting videos claiming he encountered 'cartel members' at the Mexican border

Ted cruz beto orourke
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  • Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke slammed Sen. Ted Cruz over videos he posted of himself at the Rio Grande.

  • In the videos posted Friday, Cruz claimed that he saw "human traffickers" who were taunting him.

  • O'Rourke hit back in a lengthy Twitter thread, giving Cruz tips on how to handle the border crisis.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke ridiculed Sen. Ted Cruz after he posted videos of himself at the Mexican border on Friday in which he claimed that he had encounters with "cartel members" and "human traffickers."

In a blurry video posted on Twitter, Cruz claims he is at "the shore of the Rio Grande," and has been "listening to" and "seeing" cartel members who have been taunting border control officials.

Read more: ICE has no plan to vaccinate 13,860 immigrants in its custody against COVID-19. Here's how one of the US's most at-risk groups is falling through the cracks.

"That's Mexico and you can see there are three smugglers right there standing on the Mexican side looking at us. They have been shining their flashlights at us, they are yelling at us," Cruz says in the blurry footage. The video did not show any of the alleged smugglers.

Watch the video below.

Cruz was in the Rio Grande Valley with more than a dozen other Republican senators to draw attention to what they are calling President Joe Biden's "border crisis," The Hill reported.

The Texas senator also tweeted video footage of one of the facilities, writing: "These are the Biden cages. (Faces blurred.) Thousands of kids, in the midst of a pandemic, crammed in at 1500% capacity."

O'Rourke, who unsuccessfully ran against Cruz for his senator seat in 2018, hit back on Friday, writing in a lengthy Twitter thread: "You're in a Border Patrol boat armed with machine guns. The only threat you face is unarmed children and families who are seeking asylum (as well as the occasional heckler)."

"If you're looking for a crisis to cosplay Senator for, I'm happy to point you in the right direction," O'Rourke added.

O'Rourke then went on to give the senator tips on the border situation, adding: "If you're ever interested in actually working on solutions to what we're seeing at our border (instead of trafficking in seditious lies, fleeing Texas during a storm that killed more than 100, etc.), here are some ideas."

The southern border has seen a surge of migrants since President Joe Biden took office. Many of them say they are drawn by Biden's policies surrounding asylum seekers and immigration.

The White House said earlier this week there were more than 4,900 children still in Border Patrol custody, but that it was "making progress" on m transferring them to sites run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

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