Sen. Ted Cruz was confronted on a flight Thursday for not supporting stricter gun laws following the May 24 Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead. In a video filmed and shared by Twitter user @Nathan_VBB, a supporter of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke who lives in Washington D.C., Cruz and other passengers are shown unloading their bags when the man recording jokes: "Hey, we're in Houston? I thought we were going to Cancun?"
After removing his headphones, Cruz takes notice of the man who then sarcastically tells him: "Senator, thank you for everything you've done since Uvalde. All those podcast episodes must have raised a lot of money for you." Cruz co-hosts a regular show called Verdict, on which he recently announced he'll vote against a bill protecting same-sex marriages at the federal level.
In response, Cruz says to the man that on Wednesday he attempted to pass the "most significant school safety bill ever" but "your party objected to it." The proposed bill, dubbed Securing Our Schools Act of 2022, would have directed billions of federal dollars toward more police officers and mental health counselors in schools. It was was blocked by Democrats on the Senate floor Thursday.
"What work were you doing?" the man recording asks. "How did you have time when you were recording your sh-t ton of podcast episodes?" Other passengers are heard interrupting to tell the man to listen to Cruz and to "just let him fly in peace." Ignoring this, the man proceeds to ask Cruz if he knows the names of the Uvalde victims.
Cruz briefly hesitates before answering that he does. However, he does not name any and once again refers to the school safety bill. "But you don't know. You don't care about the facts. You're a partisan and that's OK," Cruz says, turning around. As of Thursday afternoon, the video has been viewed nearly 20,000 times.
The confrontation follows a wave of criticism Cruz faced this week following a meeting he had Thursday with Kimberly and Felix Rubio, the parents of Robb Elementary shooting victim Alexandria "Lexi" Rubio. During the meeting with Cruz, the parents showed the junior senator a photo of the 10-year-old at rest in her child-size casket. Kimberly tweeted a photo of the exchange and claimed that Cruz took a look at the photo of their daughter and then declined the couple's requests to support new gun reform measure, saying he instead supports increasing law enforcement presence on school campuses.
The post sparked angry reactions from other Uvalde parents, including Brett Cross, whose 10-year-old son Uziyah Garcia was killed in the shooting. "It’s time to vote this motherf--ker out as well. Heartless piece of sh-t! His solution? More cops? 376 waiting 77 minutes wasn’t enough? F--k you!"
Cruz's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TacmedRN4 on September 16th, 2022 at 13:03 UTC »
Spoiler: he couldn’t, even though HE JUST MET ONE ON ONE WITH A VICTIM’S PARENTS!!!!
Katana1369 on September 16th, 2022 at 11:41 UTC »
He knew how many cops stood outside that door while kids where bleeding to death and still more cops is the only answer.
Tankmaster5000 on September 16th, 2022 at 11:06 UTC »
I love how he tells him to fix his tie and he instantly submits and does it while looking around embarrassed.
Rafael Cruz is an absolute coward and a pushover when confronted.