American Airlines tells Ted Cruz to get his act together
The saga of Ted Cruz and American Airlines continues. Yesterday the so-called Senator spent an entire flight refusing to wear a mask, prompting outrage across social media after images of him from the flight went viral. This afternoon American Airlines tweeted that it was looking into the matter. Now it’s taken (weak) action.
In response to ongoing questions on Twitter about how Ted Cruz will be punished for violating airline policy and putting everyone’s lives at risk, American Airlines tweeted this: “We’ve reached out to the senator to affirm the importance of our mask policy as part of our commitment to health and safety.”
That’s something, but it’s not nearly good enough. Ted Cruz isn’t some random airplane passenger who didn’t know the rules. He’s a United States Senator. He knew darn well he was supposed to be wearing a mask, and he wanted to make a political statement by not wearing one.
American Airlines personnel made an inexcusably dangerous mistake by failing to demand that Ted Cruz put on a mask during the flight, and now American Airlines corporate is making a bigger mistake by taking no punitive action against Cruz. He should be banned from the airline until the pandemic is over. Feel free to (politely) let American Airlines know what you think of its inaction.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report