- cross-posted to:
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
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.
Fuck that. They should pay out of pocket if they want bodyguards. They get enough shit on the publics dime. He could also try not being a piece of shit and people wouldn’t fuck with him.
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.
I don’t care which party they belong to. They waste enough tax money with their bullshit. They can pay out of pocket.
You’re talking out of both sides of your ass.
No it isn’t. He’s an elected public official. That means he shouldn’t hide from the public.
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.
“Let me wheel out a ridiculous comparison to make my point.”
One is a head of state, the other isn’t. And this isn’t a party issue which you’ve implied in several comment. Nobody in congress should receive protection unless they are paying out of pocket.
How is it a ridiculous comparison?
I wasn’t saying that a senator or congressman is of the same importance as a president. After all, you won’t see the president at an airport.
What I’m saying is it’s in the public interest for our elected representatives not to be subject to physical threat.
If a senator is eating at a restaurant, and a person or group comes in who they view as a threat, they always have the option to leave. Often there are multiple points of ingress/egress. And they have the option to bring in as much security as they want.
At an airport you can’t just leave unless you want to miss your flight. There are by design limited points to come in/out at an airport, and the terminals are usually dead ends so even if you wanted to leave it might not be possible if confronted by a group. And even if a person wanted to bring private security they don’t let people in unless you also buy tickets.
If you weren’t implying some sort of similarity, why bother making the comparison?
If a senator or representative feels threatened, they can call the police or find security, just like the rest of us. Especially in an airport, they are everywhere.
I do imply they are similar, I didn’t say they were the same.
Do you think that an elected official might have a higher risk of being threatened than a private citizen?
He chose to be a senator, if he feels it’s unsafe he can find a “safer” profession.
No I don’t. There are a TON of elected officials that would not benefit from this change, so this isn’t so much protecting elected officials as it’s Cruz being too much a a fucking man child to handle criticism from the people he’s supposed to serve.
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?
Generally you can ask if you can speak to them. If done in a respectful way they may talk to you. They may even be more willing to talk knowing there is security there. Each situation will very though.
Yes, that does sound like Ted Cruz.
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.
It doesn’t seem reasonable to need a security duty in a place that’s already considered high security. People are screened for anything dangerous by the TSA.
In an ideal world that would be true, but if we were in an ideal world we wouldn’t need the security there in the first place. You can do a lot of damage to someone with just your body and there are a lot of people that are violent out in society.
Maybe in the interest of safety, it would be best for everyone if we just kept Ted Cruz locked away from the public permanently, like in a bottomless pit or something.
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?
I think the people in this thread are focused on speech - you’re right that politicians should be available to the public, that they shouldn’t be insulated from public sentiment.
What I’m talking about is violence - like January 6. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean the necessary elements aren’t all there. Some people are getting information from crazy sources, completely untethered from reality.
And sure, people aren’t supposed to be able to get guns through, but I’ve accidentally brought knives through security more than once. There’s also just plain old physical force. We’ve seen news stories of people dying from a single punch, maybe their head hits the floor too hard.
If you’ve accidentally brought weapons through security, that is partially Ted Cruz’s fault. He is part of what controls the TSA’s budget. Why should he be insulated from the consequences when none of the rest of us are?
Any of us could be a victim of violence at any time. Most people, even very famous people, do not walk around with security details. I know because I used to live in L.A. and saw famous people just walking around plenty of times.
I’m sorry, but this is Ted Cruz just being a coward. On our dime.
Ted Cruz is a coward. And maybe that’s why he’s proposing this. I’m saying regardless of his reasons for proposing it or how shitty he is, I think it’s a reasonable policy.
And I’m saying it is not a reasonable policy for someone who controls the TSA’s purse strings to not trust them to stop weapons from coming into an airport.
It’s his fault it happens. He needs to deal with the consequences if there are any.
And again, this is not a common thing for federal politicians. It simply isn’t. Yes, the president and his family have a security detail. But only after a ton of presidents got assassinated. William McKinley got assassinated because Leon Czolgosz just walked up to him and shot him. But back then, we didn’t have airports or security screenings. And most senators and congresspeople still don’t walk around with a security detail.
Only the cowards.
You mentioned AOC.
AOC got sexually harassed on the capitol steps and does not have a security detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeF_jwnHMA
Here she is being confronted by angry pro-Palestinian protesters. In public without a security detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oMkaJ73D7E
As for Bernie Sanders? Here’s BLM protesters getting on the stage with him while he was running for president. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2iMM7m12zE
Bernie Sanders and AOC are not cowards and are not afraid to be around people who are harassing them in public. Not even when there is no security scanner around.
Ted Cruz is.