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- cross-posted to:
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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.
It’s not. I actually commented on this before in a different thread. I saw him in a Texas airport last year and he already had a state trooper with him and not a single person was trying to talk to him as he walked. That man is in no danger because his persona is repellent enough to keep people away from him.
And, as I pointed out elsewhere, the TSA, something he decides the funding for, is supposed to stop anyone bringing weapons into an airport.
At worst he’s risking getting punched in the face.
This doesn’t just apply to him. Plenty of legislators are expose to threats from both sides of the isle. And it isn’t like they are going to get 24h coverage from this. This is walking around an airport for a couple hours.