Ted Cruz wants lawmakers to get security escorts through America’s airports


Viral photos of politicians jetting off to a tropical hideaway during a deadly cold wave might become a lot rarer under legislation being pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Texas Republican — infamously photographed by a gawker while en route to Cancún in 2021 — is proposing a bill amendment that would offer lawmakers a dedicated security escort at airports, along with expedited screening outside of public view. That could make it much less likely that the politicians’ comings and goings would become fodder for embarrassing news reports and late-night comedy mockery.


Cruz drew a wave of criticism for his jaunt to Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which occurred as his constituents were riding out a deadly winter storm, and swiftly returned to Texas after the photos became public. His penance included handing out water bottles to storm-stricken residents, while some Democrats called for him to resign. He later said he regretted the decision to leave for Mexico with his family, calling it “obviously a mistake.”

He was hardly the first politician to be tripped up by public scrutiny of travel they might otherwise prefer would stay private. In 2009,a reporter confronted then-Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford at the Atlanta airport after he’d gone AWOL for six days, unraveling his office’s lie that he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail. (Soon after, Sanford admitted he’d been having an affair with a woman in Argentina.)

Political leaders’ air travels could become harder to decipher under Cruz’s draft language, which was obtained by POLITICO. The amendment would mandate that theTSA help “arrange” a security escort — which the provision says could be local law enforcement — for “the entirety of the time” the VIPs are at an airport. In addition, it would grant lawmakers under protective escort theability to be screened without delay.




https://www.politico.com/news/2024/0...urity-00139430




Nothing says Lion like being scared of reporters. LOL at Establishment Republicans.

Republicans always fighting for the little guy!

I can't believe he thought passing this as law would be a good idea.

I would not want to bring any further attention to running away from a winter storm and leaving your constituents behind.