Here's what Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz are saying about Project Veritas Action video

HOUSTON – A YouTube video published Thursday has riled up people on both sides of the U.S. Senate race in Texas.

The video was posted by a right-wing group called Project Veritas Action. It purports to show staffers from U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign talking about using the campaign’s funds to help undocumented immigrants.

The Democratic O’Rourke campaign issued the following statement about the claims, saying incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is leveling false accusations:

"Only days before the election, Ted Cruz shamefully and falsely suggested that the Beto For Texas campaign used campaign dollars to fund a caravan that remains hundreds of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

"'Ted Cruz pushes fear and paranoia because he wants to divide and mislead Texans four days before this election,' said Beto O'Rourke. 'We should be bringing people together and defining ourselves not by who we are scared of but what we want to achieve.'"

Late Friday afternoon, O'Rourke campaign spokesman Chris Evans, issued a second statement to KPRC2 that addresses the specific accusations made in the YouTube video.

"Staff members took it upon themselves to use prepaid cards from one of our more than 700 field offices to buy baby wipes, diapers, water, fruit and granola bars, and donate them to a local humanitarian nonprofit named Annunciation House that helps mothers and children in the community. The value was under $300 and it will be appropriately reported to the FEC."

A spokeswoman for Cruz’s campaign said in an email to KPRC2, "Sen. Cruz did not say that," and directed us to a video she tweeted Friday of Cruz speaking at a rally in Forth Worth about the video.

"At least he thought it was a joke, until a video broke this morning of his campaign staffer taking campaign money and apparently using it to give it to people coming here illegally," Cruz said in the video. 

KPRC2 has not been able to independently confirm the validity of the Project Veritas Action video.