Updated at 5:25 p.m. with O'Rourke comments.

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz joked that his opponent, Rep. Beto O'Rourke, could share a jail cell with Hillary Clinton and spoke darkly of Democratic mobs.

A day later, federal authorities said they'd found seven mail bombs sent to the former secretary of state and others, among them former President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and CNN — a network that drew chants of "CNN sucks!" at Cruz's big rally with President Donald Trump on Monday night.

Stumping in Dallas on Wednesday, Cruz denounced overheated rhetoric and political violence of any kind — and lay the bulk of the blame on the left for poisoning the nation's civic discourse.

"Violence is wrong wherever it falls in the political spectrum. This is a deeply polarized and divided time. That division, that anger, is not good for our country, and it is my hope that everyone can just calm down a little bit," he said after a rally at Gilley's honky-tonk near downtown.

He rejected the idea that he or Trump shares responsibility for stirring passions.

In the 2016 campaign, Trump routinely called for Clinton to be jailed for purported crimes involving mishandling of classified emails, and he still encourages chants of "Lock her up!" at rallies.

"Let's be clear," Cruz said. "The anger and rage that we've been seeing on the far left is deliberately provoked and stoked by Democratic politicians. When Maxine Waters and Corey Booker tell the mob to go harass, scream, yell, confront people — that is not productive. When Hillary Clinton, sadly, says that we can be civil after the Democrats have won the election, that's not productive either."

He called the mail bombings likely "terrorist acts" and said the bomber should be "put in prison for a very, very long time."

"Whether it is attempted bombings or whether it is the crazed gunman who targeted Republican members of Congress and shot and nearly killed Steve Scalise, violence is wrong from wherever it occurs on the political spectrum."

Those comments came after a stump speech in which Cruz said, among other things, that it's up to Texas voters to choose between the path of prosperity, "or if we give in to the howling rage and anger and bitterness and hatred that is dividing our country."

The White House rejected the possibility that attacks on liberal politicians and the news network Trump loves to bash were inspired by his harsh rhetoric, describing Democrats as "evil" and journalists as the "enemy of the people."

About 120 people came out to see Cruz at Gilley's, a far cry from the 16,000 at the Toyota Center in Houston on Monday night for the rally with Trump.

"I was a little disappointed," said Michelle McBride, 51, an administrative assistant. "But it's in the morning, in the middle of the week. It's hard for people, since everyone has a job."

Said Roger Schlegel, 73, a retired teacher, "I don't know what the crowd size means, but it was energized. We love what Ted Cruz represents."

In Round Rock, O'Rourke spoke to 350 supporters Wednesday afternoon under umbrellas and called the mail bombs "absolutely unacceptable."

He sidestepped a question about whether rhetoric of the sort used by Trump and Cruz contributes to a volatile political atmosphere but said, "There's just no room for violence in our politics."

Nor would he directly comment on Cruz's joke about sending him to jail, saying only: "Yeah."

In the crowd, Tim Mixon, 50, vice president of marketing at a software company, said civility "starts at the top. Look at the president's words."

And he recalled Cruz calling O'Rourke a socialist in their first debate — in response to a question asking the candidates to say something nice about each other.

"Ted Cruz couldn't do that. Right? Without getting in a dig," Mixon said. "Tomorrow, he'll be right back at it. We need civility in politics. We need to have a conversation without attacks. And that's what O'Rourke stands for."

The jail quip about O'Rourke came during a campaign stop in Georgetown.

Cruz was criticizing his opponent for voting against funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system and a woman in the crowd blurted out "Lock him up!" — an echo of the "Lock her up!" chants that continue to punctuate Trump rallies when the president mentions his 2016 opponent.

"There's a double occupancy cell with Hillary Clinton," Cruz responded, drawing laughter. Then, noting the news media was recording the exchange, he added, "Y'all are gonna get me in trouble."

Afterward, he called it a lighthearted and spontaneous moment.

"People heckled, and I'm going to laugh and have fun," he said. "We are running a campaign based on substance and issues, but we're also going to have fun. We're going to laugh."

To emphasize that it was simply an attempt at levity, he added, "By the way, the chicken did not, in fact, cross the road, in case that's being fact-checked."

There were lots of empty seats as Sen. Ted Cruz campaigns before about 120 people at Gilley's in Dallas on October 24, 2018. (Daniel Carde / Staff Photographer)

At the White House, Trump announced a "major federal investigation" was underway into the attempted bombings.

"Acts of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America," he said. And he called for national unity — an elusive goal given that partisans view each other across the political divide with deep suspicion.

In Dallas, Cruz stumped with fellow Sen. John Cornyn, the majority whip, who faces reelection in two years. He also warned of a Democratic "mob."

Warming up the crowd at Gilley's for Cruz, Cornyn asserted that angry Democrats have resisted Trump and the Republican agenda and would pursue a range of disruptive investigations if they take control of Congress in next month's elections.

"Hillary Clinton and the Democrats still haven't gotten over the fact she got beat in 2016," he said. "They're going to issue subpoena after subpoena, they're going to try to impeach President Trump."

He criticized Democrats' handling of the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination, asserting that "they threw the Constitution out the window. They threw fundamental notions of fairness ... out the window. They embraced the presumption of guilt" by airing uncorroborated allegations of sexual assaults from decades ago.

"This is what the angry left, or as I like to call them, the mob, will do to try to win this midterm election," he said. "You know the angry left is going to turn out big time. They are energized. They are fired up."

Despite the blanket disapproval of political violence, Cruz forcefully points most of the blame at liberals, as he did last weekend while stumping with Fox host Sean Hannity.

"There is an ugliness that's really scary, and I'm concerned it's going to descend into violence," he said. "The rhetoric that they are using is right on the edge of violence, and that's the next step. The problem is the left right now, they're so filled with rage that facts don't matter, they just want to burn it all down, and that's not good for our country."

Todd J. Gillman reported from Dallas. Robert T. Garrett reported from Round Rock.