Texas senator Ted Cruz is being mocked for claiming that whenever he gets on an airplane “almost without exception” a pilot or flight attendant will hug and thank him.
Cruz made the comments while meeting a group affiliated with the D.C. truckers protest referred to as the People’s Convoy on Tuesday. Pilots and flight attendants have laughed off the notion that they would hug anyone, let alone a politician when they board a plane.
“Every week I fly back and forth to Houston. Almost without exception, every time I’m on an airplane, either the captain or a flight attendant will come up to me, will hug me and say, ‘Thank you for fighting for us,” Cruz told the group who object to COVID-19 mandates.
Cruz then went on to incorrectly claim that United Airlines has fired “thousands” of pilots and flight attendants over its COVID-19 mandates.
United Airlines was the first carrier in the U.S. to issue an employee vaccine mandate last summer, and the airline has achieved a more than 99 percent vaccination rate amongst eligible employees.
In October, United chief executive Scott Kirby revealed that the airline would be firing 232 employees for failing to comply with the mandate, while only six pilots had been dismissed for either refusing to get vaccinated or win an exemption.
A spokesperson for United Airlines declined to comment on Cruz’s claims.
Cruz has opposed vaccine mandates and has hit back at calls from Delta Air chief executive Ed Bastian for a federal no-fly list for unruly passengers. The Republican senator has also called for the federal face mask mandate to be lifted and does not want the mandate to be extended beyond March 18.
“I’m a flight attendant based in Texas and had him on my flights a number of times,” one flight attendant said on Twitter after a video of Cruz’s comments were released. “I can assure you that I NEVER saw anyone go anywhere near him, least of all the flight crew!!”
“What are the odds that ‘every time’ Ted Cruz is on an airplane, the only 2 people in the world who would hug him just happen to be the pilot and flight attendant?”
