Ted Cruz: 'Stop catcalling me'

Responding to a request to debate him, Sen. Ted Cruz said "stop catcalling me" on Friday.

See who's taking the most PAC money on the campaign trail in Texas. Responding to a request to debate him, Sen. Ted Cruz said "stop catcalling me" on Friday.

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Responding to a request to debate him, Sen. Ted Cruz said "stop catcalling me" on Friday.

Cruz appeared to be mimicking a similar conversation that played out between New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ben Shapiro, a right-wing pundit with a controversial record of comments on Islam.

Shapiro, who got his start at Breitbart news and later founded The Daily Wire, challenged Ocasio-Cortez to a debate and promised to donate $10,000 to her campaign.

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The Democratic Socialist canidate ignored Shapiro's request, likening it to catcalling.

Just like catcalling, I don’t owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions.



And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one. pic.twitter.com/rsD17Oq9qe — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 10, 2018

After her response went viral, Young Turks host Cenk Uygur criticized the media for paying too much attention to the Twitter feud. To make his point, Uygur challenged Ted Cruz to a debate.

This whole @benshapiro offering to debate @Ocasio2018 issue is ridiculous and shows the bias of the media in favor of the right-wing. Fine, I offer the same $10,000 to debate @tedcruz. Not joking. Guaranteed it gets no coverage. Why won't the bumbling coward Ted Cruz debate me?! — Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) August 10, 2018

"Stop catcalling me," responded Cruz.

The tweet, like Ocaisio's, quickly gained popularity and was shared more than 4,000 times less than an hour after being posted.

Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93



