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Home » Law In Travel » Ted Cruz Shields Politicians From Pesky Constituents At US Airports
Law In Travel

Ted Cruz Shields Politicians From Pesky Constituents At US Airports

Matthew Klint Posted onFebruary 9, 2024February 9, 2024 43 Comments

Ted Cruz United Leak

US Senator Ted Cruz (R – TX) has successfully added language to a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill that will spare lawmakers from the public at US airports with private screening and security escorts. This is not sound public policy.

Man Of The People: Cruz Pushes Through Amendment That Will Give Politician VIP Security At US Airports

Cruz alleges that “increased threats” have made it too dangerous for politicians, judges, and their immediate families to travel though US airports. He slipped in an amendment to the latest FAA re-authorization bill that will grant him and other politicians, cabinet members, federal judges, and immediate family members a number of airport perks:

  • Dedicated private security screening away from the public
  • Security escorts 

A majority in the Senate agreed, with Cruz’s amendment left in the bill:

The Senate is moving ahead with a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz that would allow political VIPs to be whisked through airport security lines, reducing the chances of embarrassing snapshots going viral.

Cruz’s amendment, which he says is needed to ensure public officials’ safety amid a rise in threats, was appended on Thursday to a major aviation policy bill. Though the bill still has more steps before it becomes law, its inclusion at this stage was a win for the Texas Republican, who was infamously photographed by a gawker while en route to Cancún during a brutal winter storm in 2021.

That Cancun trip remains an embarrassment for Cruz. After a power grid failure that plunged millions of Texans into darkness, Cruz skipped town and flew to Mexico. He was called on it and forced to apologize…

But this bill is aimed at shielding him from the public. If Cruz is escorted though a private security checkpoint and held in a VIP waiting area until boarding time, he is less likely to be photographed or have to interact with his constituents.

View From The Wing is exactly on point in arguing that sparing government officials from government-run security will not lead to innovation and improved customer service:

It seems to me that since in the U.S. airports are owned and managed by governments, and security screening is largely performed by (rather than just overseen by) government, government leaders should experience them the same way that passengers do, “eat your own dog food” or else we cannot ever expect the product to get better.

Right on, Gary.

Badgering Is Not Okay. But Neither Is This VIP Treatment

I’ve long bemoaned overzealous constituents badgering politicians in airports or on trains. If you approach an elected leader, you must be respectful. 

> Read More: US Senator Harassed By “Constituent” At National Airport
> Read More: US Senator Badgered By “Journalist” On Amtrak Train, Threatens To Have Him Thrown Off

But politicians do need to be accountable to their constituents and when they elevate themselves, insulated by incumbency advantage and a lack of term limits, to a position in which they wish to no longer deal with the hoi polloi outside of controlled settings, there is something very wrong.

I’ve met Cruz before and enjoyed a nice chat with him….I have nothing against him personally, though I cannot say that I respect how he still endorsed Donald Trump after the ex-President so savagely attacked his wife Heidi, who shares the same name as my wife.

two men in suits posing for a picture

I do understand that as a polarizing people, many people hate this man, not just his policies. But even so, maybe if he is truly afraid of the public he might change the way he votes on gun laws?

CONCLUSION

Senator Cruz has managed to push through a provision in the FAA reauthorization act to shield politicians like him from the security checkpoints you or I have to go through. This is bad public policy: creating a separate system for the political class further insulates them from the people and problems they have been elected to care for.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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43 Comments

  1. Alert Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:06 am

    The cut of Cruz’ green suit hangs well on him ; Matthew needs a size larger suit .

    • derek Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 10:41 am

      In Germany, that is the style.

      • Alert Reply
        February 9, 2024 at 10:48 am

        @derek … Constricted is never in style . A bloke wants to be loose , so he can make moves .

    • AndyS Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 10:58 pm

      I disagree.
      The cuff of the jacket should be shorter than the shirt under it.
      Cruz suit is too big.

      Matthews suit is perfect fit

  2. Adam L Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:14 am

    Look, I’m not saying Sen. Cruz should be blown out of an unsecured door plug at 30,000 feet, but I wouldn’t be sad about it either.

    • Samus Aran Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 1:01 pm

      Not on his watch… Ted Cruz wants door control.

    • Andys Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 10:59 pm

      Ted Cruz is great, we need more like him.
      He keep the deranged liberals in the Senate at bay.

  3. Maryland Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:19 am

    Politicians want all the media face time they can muster until they have something to hide. ( looking at you Dan Crenshaw and the dog debacle ). Now the can have their cake and eat it too. Is it privacy or hiding?

    • Alert Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 10:50 am

      @Maryland … I’m with Cruz on this one … ( too many wild-eyed nuts out there ) .

      • Maryland Reply
        February 9, 2024 at 11:01 am

        Yes the world is filled with them, but when you’re a political figure special treatment sends the wrong message. It is their duty to fix the problems not be afraid of them.

      • JH Reply
        February 9, 2024 at 11:48 am

        Why do elected officials need to go through security at all?

        What purpose does it serve to have Pelosi or Cruz have their bags x-rayed, etc.?

        So what if Nancy is carrying a gun…I would if I were her.

        Besides…Congress is at their most dangerous when in session. By the time they get to the airport we are already screwed.

        • Maryland Reply
          February 9, 2024 at 11:54 am

          lol

        • AndyS Reply
          February 9, 2024 at 10:57 pm

          I disagree.
          The cuff of the jacket should be shorter than the shirt under it.
          Cruz suit is too big.

          Matthews suit is perfect fit.

      • Stuart Reply
        February 9, 2024 at 12:31 pm

        @Alert….the wild eye nuts are usually Trumpers. And you don’t see Chuck Schumer or other Dems calling for this.

        Bottom line is that Cruz just doesn’t want to be tracked. Sorry, you choose a job as an elected official that serves the public you can’t hide. Don’t like it, don’t do it.

    • Aaron Reply
      February 10, 2024 at 6:32 am

      Hiding for sure.

  4. lars Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:22 am

    I’d be curious about the inside baseball behind this one. No doubt many lawmakers like this idea, but were afraid to put their name on it with good reason. I wonder what Ted gets in return for this.

    Will be interesting to see if this makes it through the house…

    • GUWonder Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 2:38 pm

      Ted Cruz is quite literally pleased with himself being a troll and even being despised by his colleagues. But that is not why he did this. He’s all about what’s good for him, and he couldn’t care less about what’s good for the country. He is of the narcissistic psychopathic mentality and so delusional that believes everything good for him is good for all since he can do no wrong and everything that goes wrong is always someone else’s fault. He’s literally a junior league Trump, and I can only hope his kids don’t get their values from him, since he’s really a pitiful character at heart.

  5. derek Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:45 am

    National Airport is open because of Congress wanting a close in airport for themselves (most of them except Westerners). There was talk to have only Dulles in the 1970’s. Some politicians get free DCA parking.

  6. cairns Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 10:49 am

    Ted just put his name on it. All the dogs, left and right, voted for it….so don’t blame just Ted.

  7. Santastico Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 11:00 am

    Don’t like the guy but at least he had the balls to put his name on this. As you said, the majority of the Senate is approving this so blame them all and not only the guy that had the guts to get this done. Left or right, they are all from the same bag.

  8. Chi Hsuan Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 11:01 am

    “I cannot say that I respect how he still endorsed Donald Trump after the ex-President so savagely attacked his wife Heidi, who shares the same name as my wife.”

    I agree with you about about this VIP nonsense but this is one of the silliest things you’ve sad. The bad wittle man said something MEAN about a woman with the same name as my wife. Boo Hoo

    Pussy.

  9. JH Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 11:41 am

    It’s all security theatre, anyway.

    The fact that illegal immigrants can travel freely without ID is just more proof that the TSA is a joke.

  10. BHN Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 11:42 am

    Another bennie that Congress grants itself, while the public wait in long security lines and are subjected to pat downs and rude TSA agents.

  11. JoeMart Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 12:28 pm

    Ted is concerned about strangers approaching him at the airport. Shouldn’t he be more concerned about Russian and Chinese intelligence having access to his phone and computers?

  12. Jerry Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 1:01 pm

    If Ted did anything, one single thing, anything at all, to make the lifes of Texans better, he wouldn’t need to worry about being tracked. Nobody cares where John Cornyn is flying.

    Unfortunately Ted doesn’t care at all about the people he serves. He’ll never fix guns, as you suggest, because the NRA gives him way too much money. Cruz has made a career from political grandstanding. Partisan politics is the only reason he gets elected, and that in a way, is an indictment of Texans, because he’s immensely unpopular here, but he’ll still probably get voted back in this November.

  13. Native Texan Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 1:07 pm

    Fled Cruz wants to make sure no one knows about his vacation when Texas has its next meltdown.

    • AndyS Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 11:02 pm

      Texas won’t have another meltdown.
      Unlike commiefornia they actually improve things

      • Aaron Reply
        February 10, 2024 at 6:34 am

        Lol.

      • Native Texan Reply
        February 10, 2024 at 10:31 am

        Lol what a simp

  14. BabyDan Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    The audacity if these US politicians..with this attitude they will be needing more than that in the future.
    If you vote for that man, you are well an idiot.

  15. BabyDan Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 1:21 pm

    Sorry Matthew! Iam just angry of these idiots. Please edit my comment out.

  16. dee Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 2:10 pm

    Alert I agree with you!!

  17. al Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 2:14 pm

    Adam L.: “Look, I’m not saying Sen. Cruz should be blown out of an unsecured door plug at 30,000 feet, but I wouldn’t be sad about it either.”
    Gee Matthew, I can’t imagine why Cruz is concerned about this issue. Maybe you should read the comments to your own post and read first hand from lefty loons who are proud to say they’d be perfectly fine with Cruz being blown out of a plane at 30,000 feet.
    Lose your leftwing partisan goggles and you just might figure this mystery out.
    The truly scary thing about the loony left is that they literally don’t even hear themselves.

    • MFK Reply
      February 9, 2024 at 2:40 pm

      Don’t recall Ted Cruz cowering in a Capitol building supply closet on Jan. 6 from members of the loony left.

      • Aaron Reply
        February 10, 2024 at 6:39 am

        It wasn’t the looney left that stormed the Capitol building, that’s for sure.

    • Aaron Reply
      February 10, 2024 at 6:36 am

      Enough of this stupid triggered by left-loon nonsense. Not being sad at someone’s potential demise is not the same as wanting to go out and kill someone or wishing them dead.

  18. GUWonder Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 2:30 pm

    Banana republics tend to have their political lists of favorite establishment players and hanger-ons whom are granted all sorts of waivers and favors that are off-limits to the average citizen of such countries, and such dynamics showing up at airports is part and parcel of such systems where the governed are plagued by governing types who insulate themselves from problems the governing classes created for the governed subjects who are but in name treated as equals to the governing citizens. Senator Ted Cruz is worthy of being a Putin-supporting Russian Duma member with too fond memories of the benefits of the Soviet Union nomenclatura system.

    I really hope this Cruz item gets stripped out of whatever bill makes it to the President’s desk. Our politicians should suffer the same experience as their constituents at airports and it should be in plain sight for all with no extraordinary privileges at airports when flying common carriers.

  19. Gammyjill Reply
    February 9, 2024 at 2:36 pm

    My favorite line about Ted Cruz was said a few years ago by-then Minnesota senator Al Frankin.

    “I like Ted Cruz more than any other Senator likes Ted Cruz. And I HATE Ted Cruz”

  20. Aaron Reply
    February 10, 2024 at 6:40 am

    “the hoi polloi”

    The the many?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      February 10, 2024 at 7:17 am

      literal translation aside, I hope my meaning was clear.

      • Aaron Reply
        February 10, 2024 at 11:40 am

        I do, it just makes me chuckle in the same way whenever people say they are drinking chai tea.

  21. Max Reply
    February 10, 2024 at 8:08 am

    The TSA is one of the few interactions many Americans have with the federal government. It is democratizing: everyone has to pass to checkpoints. We all need absurd plastic bags, we’ve all been hit with “say your name,” or “you have been selected for [insert indignity here]”

    Members of Congress need to experience what their legislation imparts on their constituents.

    If a member of Congress wishes to have more private, expedited security screening, the lawmaker can pay for one of the many concierge services that offer some element of this service. It they feel that they need extra special treatment, pay up.

    I’m sorry, Senator Cruz, stand in the queue, discard your liquids, empty your pockets, leave your firearms at home, say your name, hands in the air, get your hands and phone swabbed. If you do not like it, hold hearings on the problems with the TSA.

    An election to the Senate is a duty to SERVE the public, not to be served.

    This is not partisan; this is about reasonable expectations for humility.

  22. Christian Reply
    February 10, 2024 at 11:01 am

    Well, we didn’t need it but we got yet more proof that “Ted” Cruz is a malignant pustule that needs to be lanced on the hindquarters of the USA. Even by the ridiculously low standards for statewide elected officials from Texas Cruz is pathetic.

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