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.
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?