Beto O’Rourke apologized Friday night for writings the former Texas representative made as a teenager describing fantasies about running over children with a vehicle.

“I’m mortified to read it now, incredibly embarrassed, but I have to take ownership of my words,” the Democratic presidential candidate said during a taping of the “Political Party Live” podcast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Whatever my intention was as a teenager doesn’t matter, I have to look long and hard at my actions, at the language I have used, and I have to constantly try to do better.”

His comments come after a report Friday revealed O’Rourke wrote prose when he was a teenager describing a scenario in which he would accelerate a car into a group of children while hearing them scream. The report also showed he was a secret member of a hacking group called the “Cult of the Dead Cow,” which focused on showing people how to hack Microsoft computers.

“It’s not anything I’m proud of today, and I mean, that’s — that’s the long and short of it,” he said. “All I can do is my best, which is what I’m trying to do. I can’t control anything I’ve done in the past. I can only control what I do going forward and what I plan to do is give this my best.”

He launched his 2020 presidential campaign Thursday.

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