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I sat next to him on a plane once to Cancun. He took up both arm rests
I believe this completely haha
I walked by him on a plane once after he’d been holding up the boarding process for forever by talking to the guys on the jet bridge… his elbow was 💯 in the aisle. And he was indeed flying economy.
This made me chuckle
There’s no way he’s flying middle seat in economy
He wasn’t happy about it. He climbed over me when he had to go to the bathroom instead of just asking me to get up
Was he in the middle seat?
Yeah he was farting the whole time too and blaming it on the row in front of us
You allowed him to take your arm rest?
It was clear pretty quick that legislating wasn’t what he viewed his actual job to be. I asked him about a bill he had talked about, and he just had a blank stare while a staffer hurriedly tried to fill him in on the details.
His sense of humor is also just punching down and talking shit to everyone else in the room (and those not in the room).
He drinks Diet Dr Pepper.
I remember when all of us were constantly calling and messaging his office when he was battling against Obamacare. It was a pretty big Texas campaign, and many were sending faxes to his office. When asked about it, he literally turned around and unplugged the fax machine.
I will never forget that he shut down the government and filibustered reading Green Eggs and Ham because too many people were going to have access to health care.
Yep. Ted does NOT give a shit what his constituents want.
Well, that explains why my body doesn't tolerate it anymore. It was a warning.
Lol diet Dr Pepper 😂
Diet Dr. Pepper? Get a rope.
Sounds like the only thing he has going for him is delicious diet Dr! Pepper.
Jeebus that last fact. shudders
Comment removed by moderator
White claw is the true drink of democracy.
Well played
Comment deleted by user
Really, and the other comments “make an effort”. This wasn’t a top level comment either.
My apologies, this was actually a rule 6 violation, not a rule 5.
Removed. Rule 6.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TexasPolitics/wiki/index/rules
Ted is like an old armadillo that’s dead in the road. Flat, no enthusiasm, arrogant and has no interest in talking in depth politics. Talked to him for 10 minutes and he just talked about himself.
Ah why you have to do armadillos like that?
Dead armadillos are notoriously arrogant, I wish it weren't the case, but it's true.
Sorry
And a carrier of leprosy.
I have two stories from people that worked with him a while back.
One was a staffer on GWB governorship in TX. Rafael, as he asked to be called just briefly, was in some governor’s legal counsel office, and would continuously try to get into meetings he wasn’t asked to be in. And that at one point the staffers of that office noticed that their pass card no longer worked on other floors, and their IT access became very limited. Rafael was very testy and they overheard him being told off in a conference call that his job was to be at his desk resolving what was being submitted to them, not for him to be meandering to the governor’s office unless asked to.
The other was from a past associate in a law firm where Rafael was an attorney. He said he’d be the person that by just seeing you had already made up who you were to him. And that he’d make every point to show that he was always superior to anyone. He says one way to piss him off was to speak Spanish in front of him. This was in Houston, lots of Spanish spoken. He would take a lot of Chinese and Arabic clients because other prospective clients couldn’t stand him. Funny enough this guy says he heard him have a call with his preacher father where expletives were hurled at.
Ok so now it's every Texans' duty to say "hola, Rafael" to him wherever he is.
"Hola Rafael! Viva Mexico!"
Really paints a picture….I can imagine he would clash w his dad, who seems like a narcissist himself
More from both folks.
The first said that Rafael was given that job because he had work in GWB’s governor campaign as a sort of “in kind” contribution from a law firm that just wanted him out. He said that from day one, his schedule was to be the most unhelpful to anyone bringing matters, or to helping other state sovereigns especially if they were democratic. He said that a lot of the people then were very moderate, that they would get along a lot more and that they would work where they had no disagreements at least. But as to Rafael the word Dr. No was overwhelming. That he would have his favorites, and an ass kissing intern from some evangelical church that stayed on unpaid in the hopes someone would get fired and he’d fill in. When a spot was available Rafael gave it to someone else nonetheless haha.
More from the other, is that he’d make a huge point that he was Cuban American and not Mexican. That he would act as if he was the whitest version of East-coast American with a very chewy Texan accent. That when he’d run into yelling bouts with his father, that it would be in ultrafast chopped Spanish with a myriad of insults. That he would call you in, ask a question, and would stay quiet after you replied staring at you. That it was the worst experience ever. That a good day for his assistant was for him to not walk in the office.
Brutal. If that’s true, not surprising so many hate him
Man that makes my worst boss I've ever had seem like a reasonable person. And his mistreatment has haunted me for years.
I know someone who was high up in W’s state administration and presidential campaign and who had to deal with Ted crashing meetings and not staying t in his lane. They told me almost the exact same thing virtually verbatim.
Rafael speaks spanish?
I didn’t meet him personally, but my wife’s aunt did several years ago.
My wife’s aunt at the time was a member of city council in a small town on the South Texas coast, near Corpus Christi. It was 2017, and Hurricane Harvey had decimated the town. People lost their homes, businesses completely flooded out, whole town was in shambles. It looked like the four horsemen of the apocalypse had picked this one town to completely wipe out.
Most everyone in the town (including my aunt-in-law) is super Republican. Dedicated donors, fundraisers, organizers, the whole shebang. Naturally, most of the Texas GOP Congressional delegation came down a few weeks after Harvey finally passed. On this day, John Cornyn, Cruz, and Michael Cloud (the town’s US Rep) all stopped by to check in with them. It was a photo op for sure, but to Cornyn and Cloud’s credit, they met with my aunt in law personally away from the cameras, asked what they needed, how they could help, promised to help as much as they could, and actually followed through several weeks later.
Ted, on the other hand, never bothered to meet with the town’s officials, posed for some selfies near the most dramatic looking wreckage, complained about having to do these ‘devastation tours’ to his staffers loudly enough that my aunt in law heard him, and them quickly ran off to his helicopter to continue his ‘tour’. She never heard from him or his office again. No one in the town did.
She called him a Grade A asshole and said she’d never vote for him again. She followed through in 2018 and voted for the Libertarian candidate
Cornyn is actually a good dude even if you don’t like his politics. I did an event for him when he was AG. It was on Mother’s Day and he was unveiling his dead be dad collections effort. After he spoke he stayed around listened to about 20 different women who had issues and he took notes. He travels with his wife a lot and she’s a gem of a human being. I used to ride every Thursday or Friday back with them on a southwest flight from DC. He had security with him but they always kept a distance. He could have always boarded first, but waited in line like everybody else. Castro was on the flight one time and he had security wall him off from everyone and made the biggest deal of himself… funny part is that nobody knew who he was.
Can confirm Cornyn’s low profile in the airport. I’ve taken a few of those Southwest direct flights, and if you didn’t know who Cornyn was, you’d never know that a US Senator was on your flight.
Very true. I’m betting we’ve been on that flight together. Pretty much a who’s who of Texas lobbyists every week.
Honestly just the fact that he flies Southwest (an airline I personally detest) is impressive. I disagree with his politics but the SW commute is pretty humble, IMO, for a US Senator.
Honestly, they’re one of the few airlines that run a DC-Austin direct flight. Most others have a layover somewhere.
It's because the WN flight is the only one to go to DCA. G4 and UA (and AA up until the beginning of this year) fly to IAD
edit: WN -> Southwest, G4 -> Allegiant, DCA -> Reagan National, IAD -> Dulles Int'l
Fuck that guy. As a Texan who has seen his brisket hate crimes, I could never. Besides, his politics are just corporation handjobs. Look at his Uvalde stances. Fuck any guy that can't stand up for kids not being shot in school and sucks the law enforcement taint when they failed do their god damn jobs so tragically.
Congress responded to the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde by passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It included extended background checks for firearm purchasers under the age of 21, clarification of Federal Firearms License requirements, funding for state red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs, further criminalization of arms trafficking and straw purchases, and partial closure of the boyfriend loophole.
It was the first federal gun control legislation enacted in 28 years.
The key negotiators on the Senate bill were Chris Murphy (D-CT, a prominent gun control advocate since Sandy Hook in his home state), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kyrsten Sinema (then D-AZ, now I-AZ), and Thom Tillis (R-NC). Cornyn was the lead Republican negotiator, and got booed for his role in it at the 2022 Texas GOP convention.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/27/john-cornyn-texas-gun-bill
Yeah, later. He started here and caught a asston of blowback. https://www.newsweek.com/uvalde-shooting-cornyn-slammed-decrying-finger-pointing-police-1711187
If someone has to lead the Senate GOP caucus, I’d take Cornyn over almost anyone else on that side of the aisle. He’s an institutionalist and an earnest dealmaker.
I agree. I used to bartend private events. I ended up bartending in Cornyn’s house at his birthday party. He was so nice and treated all the staff with kindness and respect. That’s why I’ve been so disappointed that he’s stayed silent on all the chaos and unlawful behavior of some of his colleagues.
That's actually very nice to hear. I definitely don't agree with his politics but it's nice to know that he's not a gasbag like our other US Senator.
As for the Castro bros...ugh. He's my Rep. and he's ok as a Rep. Not surprised to read he's full of himself.
I was doing research on the rape kit testing backlog and I found that Cornyn had authored and pushed a bill to direct more funding to testing and got the DOJ to create a grant program for states. I asked my friend, who is an advocate for sexual assault victims (and very liberal), what she thought of Cornyn and she said that she had had meetings with him and he listens to every single story from survivors no matter what and often can recall their names and stories if he sees them again.
Ingleside?
Was this in Robstown?
Oh I met him alright.
Picture this. 2016. Right after Trump won.
I worked at an affordable housing complex, where a lot of people were set to be very negatively impacted by this new administration. I was minding my own business when one of the nurses for a resident stopped by my office to tell me he was there.
I had to see it for myself. Sure enough: he showed up to deliver Meals on Wheels for residents. If it were just him, fine, but his staff was with him to get footage for social media.
I had a brief interaction with him. You ever just meet someone and know that they’re full of shit immediately? Like, I really did try to give him the benefit of the doubt but I just could not do it. I did, however, snap a pic with him. I gave a thumbs up though that was because I could not use the finger I REALLY wanted to use since I was clocked in.
I later learned that when word got around to the residents that Ted Cruz was there, a few of them refused to answer their door and meet him. It’s telling when people who have little money would refuse food because they didn’t want to meet the delivery man.
That is so pathetic…thanks for sharing
Even fatter than he looks on tv
He supposedly uses a microwave at Congress to heat up fish.
Also to burn popcorn
Yikes
GIMME A FUCKIN MIC
Haha - he’s kind of an opposite of Karl Rove.
🤣
Political ad shoot. He was rude and demeaning to his wife, daughters and mother, and yelled at them. No surprise to anyone, I’m sure.
Wow, curious what kinds of things did he say/do to them that were demeaning?
Full of himself. Self important. Arrogant. Really insecure. He was one of the guests of honor at the city of Dallas inauguration, and I was a staffer. He complimented my shoes and I almost burned them when I got home.
i wonder how he has the time to be a senator when he is podcasting 3-4 times a week.
If these stories confirm anything to me it’s that Teddy Boy basically spends his days finding increasingly creative ways to avoid any form of productivity which requires effort on his part, and then eagerly cashes his tax-funded check at the end of the month, all while acting like he’s better than everyone else.
I hate this term but it describes him perfectly: “welfare queen”
I’m assuming he gets his staff to do 99% of the work for him.
Very arrogant. Typical “smartest guy in the room” and he knows it and makes sure you know it. I have a few stories of him just being a dick for no reason.
Interesting, would be curious to hear one of the stories
Signed a lot of NDAs, but I think I can tell this one being vague. I will preface with this - Cruz is actually a brilliant lawyer. At one time he had tried more cases in front of the Supreme Court than other lawyer. Many think he should have stayed in that lane - many Republicans like me.
Go back to well before he was a senator in a presidential race featuring another Texan. We were doing fundraising efforts for big donors and my colleague got a guy who owned a manufacturing company in the north east. He was willing to stroke a six figure check to the RNC on one condition - he could get some face time with the presidential candidate and talk about an issue important to him. This donor was no hotshot ceo - just a very blue collar type of guy who made some money with his business. If I remember correctly, he had to buy a sport coat for the meeting. They bring him into the room back stage at a campaign event. In that room is the candidate and about five other high level advisors - Cruz being one of them. All the guy wants to do is be heard. He tells the candidate his issue. It’s not really something in the purview of the executive branch and really not a national issue at all. They could have just heard him out and promised to “look into it” and taken the money. Oh but Cruz wasn’t having it. He lays into the guy telling him he’s basically stupid for bringing this to a presidential candidate to consider. He embarrasses the guy for no reason.
The guy did give the money but it took a whole bunch of apologies to get it. That’s the kind of personality he has. He’d berate a kid who believes in Santa.
😭 that’s so awful I almost feel bad for him & Ty for sharing
Leopards ate my face type of shit. I'm sure that dude still voted Republican every time he got the chance.
How has this guy made it this far? Who wants to fund someone like that? Sounds like a fun guy to be around /s
OooMff/ was a race against David Dewhurst in the primary. Fucked either way you went
I can't believe he still donated the money!
At least he didn’t let being disrespected detract from the big picture. Making life miserable for minorities.
Oleaginous.
bravo
Had to look it up. Good word, thanks!
I used to be a conservative. Back when I was, I remember this particular moment at a conservative conference where, during the Q&A section, I asked him if he had to choose who Trump's opponent would be during the 2020 election, who would it be?
He talked trash about all of the candidates and never got around to answering my question.
One of his college roommates used to post about him. He was widely despised.
Oh, lots more to be said about this. This is a fairly common trope where they ask the college roommate "what was the candidate like in college?" And they say roughly the same thing : "oh they were always studying" or "he was really popular with the ladies" or some empty thing like that. on a national news network the only thing this guy said was "you should save yourself some time and start hating him immediately…" Just about swallowed my tongue. The interviewer was speechless.
That's beautiful. Is there a link to a recording of this interaction? I'd love to see it, or read it, whichever.
There may be a better video but I found this clip from another video of a quote directly from his roommate, Craig Mazin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuFBfjWXy98&t=105s
Lewis Black had a bit about how he said that you could pick any phone book in any county and point to a name and get a better president than Ted.
Craig Mazin - an absolute legend. He is a producer/director/writer - he did Chernobyl and The Last of Us but his best work are the Tweets about Ted Cruz. He apparently has PTSD from having to be Ted’s freshman roommate
A
smallselection from writer Craig Mazin's now-private xitter (he was Cruz's roommate freshman year):2012
2013
2016
2017
2020
Oooh! On Reddit? I would enjoy reading that stuff.
I can't remember who it was but a prominent ex-Republican on Twitter said that, as an aide in the W Bush administration, they would plan to meet up for drinks after work at whichever bar Ted Cruz wasn't at.