Republican senator, who flew to Mexico as Texas faced deadly cold snap, complains of ‘serious security threats’ to lawmakers
The Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz, who achieved viral infamy in 2021 when he was seen at Houston airport for a flight to Cancún even as his state faced a historic and deadly spell of cold weather, this week moved a step closer to securing police escorts for lawmakers at airports.
Under an amendment to the Federal Aviation Authority Reauthorization bill introduced by Cruz, members of Congress and other prominent officials, and some family and staff members, will be offered security escorts if they are deemed “currently … or previously … the subject of a threat, as determined by such applicable federal protective agency”.
If passed by the House and Senate, the bill will fund the FAA for four years.
But given Cruz’s scrape with viral fame over his flight to Mexico in February 2021 – a trip to join a family vacation he abandoned after one day, admitting his “obvious mistake” as tweets and memes proliferated – the senator faces criticism and mockery over his attempt to secure security guards for future airport trips.
Honestly this seems reasonable. Still funny that he is one of the sponsors though.
Agree.
Many politicians suck, and it’s not good that they’re insulated from public feedback. I think some people feel like harassing Ted Cruz at the airport is the only way he’s ever going to hear what they have to say, so they don’t want to have taxpayer money going to protect him.
But for those people imagine the flip side: some Jan 6er assholes harassing AOC or Bernie at the airport. There are enough people from any walk of life or viewpoint to mob a politician at an airport.
I am absolutely fine with that. They are citizens. They should have the right to approach elected officials in public. Just because they say things I don’t like doesn’t mean those officials should be immune from the public.
If you don’t want people to talk to you, maybe politician isn’t the right job for you.
And I would not be at all surprised if that has happened to both AOC and Sanders more than once and they handled it with grace and aplomb. Do you really think they have security details? Does that sound like Bernie Sanders?
No it isn’t. He’s an elected public official. That means he shouldn’t hide from the public.
No one said you can’t talk to them just because they have security.
Have you ever tried to talk to someone surrounded by security staff?
We don’t say the same thing about the president, right? At a certain point it would be harmful for the country if politicians were subject to physical intimidation. And while we might have feelings about assholes from other parties, what about people with the same views as us?
Weird how he didn’t need this security detail last year. Seems like it only happened when he got publicly criticized.
Most senators do not have a security detail. Ted is afraid of talking to the public unless it’s on TV.