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US Representative Beto O. Rourke speaks at the General Session of the Texas Democratic Convention in Fort Worth, Texas on June 22, 2018.
(Associated Press)
US representative Beto O'Rourke said on Saturday that he did not leave the scene of the drunken driving arrest in 1998 near El Paso, Texas, and added that a passenger inside his vehicle that night confirmed his words.
"I did not run away," O'Rourke told Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin in 2018. "The police report on this is wrong."
O 'Rourke, a Democrat from El Paso who hoped to overthrow US Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in November, dismissed the September 1998 police reports that quoted an anonymous motorist who allegedly prevented O & # 39; Rourke to flee the place of the accident. Interstate 10.
In her closing remarks, O'Rourke recently contacted the female passenger for her recollection of the evening.
"I contacted the passenger who was in the car that I was driving – who also does not appear in the police report, among other factual errors – a person to whom I have not spoken for more 15 years old and asked her if she remembered that evening, "said O & # Rourke. "She said," No, we were in the middle of the road. We did not try to flee. I do not know that there were places where we could have gone. "
"I reached out to the passenger in the car I was driving … She said," No, we were in the middle of the road. We did not try to flee. I do not know that there were places where we could have gone. "
O'Rourke, who was turning 26, hit a truck traveling in the same direction at high speed before crossing the middle lane and stopping, a police witness said.
His blood alcohol level was 0.136, well above the legal limit of 0.10 at the time.
"The defendant / driver then tried to leave the premises," police officer Richard Carrera said in a report. The witness "then turned on his overhead lights to warn oncoming traffic and attempt to arrest the defendant."
O'Rourke also challenged the account during a debate Friday against Cruz.
"I have not tried to leave the scene of the accident, although driving in a state of intoxication – which I have done – is a terrible mistake, for which it is n & # 39; There is no excuse for justification or defense, "said O & Rourke during the debate.
A Washington Post investigator gave O'Rourke "four Pinocchios" about his claim.
"Given its alcohol content at the time of the accident, O'Rourke's memory 20 years after the fact is far from being as credible as the police reports written a few hours after the accident. Accident, "wrote Glenn Kessler, a reporter for the daily Post, in his investigation.
O'Rourke completed a court-ordered program and the charges against him were dropped. He had also been arrested in 1995 for jumping a fence at an institution at the University of Texas at El Paso.
O'Rourke has publicly described these incidents as "young indiscretions and" bad judgment, "according to the Houston Chronicle.
"These mistakes did not ultimately define or prevent me from doing what I wanted to do in life or how I wanted to contribute to the success of my family and my community," he wrote in the rostrum. .
During his conversation with Smith on Saturday, O'Rourke repeatedly refused to answer a question about his total fundraising for the third quarter of this year, which will end Sunday.
"Honestly, I do not know, but that's a lot," he said.
He also stated that he would not serve in the Senate for more than two terms (12 years) when he overthrew Cruz.
When Smith asked him where he was between very liberal democrats and types of institutions, O'Rourke said, "I'm in Texas."
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