Ted Cruz Scorned For Fiddling With His Cellphone During Capitol Riot Testimony

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who requested this week that people should try not to be “assholes” and treat others with “some modicum of respect,” was pictured staring at his phone Tuesday during testimony at the Senate hearings investigating the deadly insurrection he helped inspire.

Current and former top law enforcement officials appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees to testify publicly for the first time about intelligence and security failures that led to the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 

Steven Sund, who resigned as chief of Capitol Police following the riot, gave a grim account of the events that day, saying he witnessed the “worst attack on law enforcement and our democracy” in his 30-year career. He described how officers were beaten with fists, bats, sticks and pipes.

Sund said his former agency had been prepared for an increased level of violence, but “none of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred.” As he said this, the C-SPAN livestream from the chamber cut to Cruz, who was on his phone.

A representative of Cruz did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.

Cruz has been at the center of a firestorm this week after he jetted off on a Cancun holiday while his home state was ravaged by a major snowstorm that crippled water and power systems and left millions of his constituents exposed to freezing temperatures. 

After cutting his trip short amid massive backlash, Cruz blamed his daughters and then the media , and raged that someone in his wife’s group text leaked her messages about the trip to The New York Times, exposing his lie.

“Heidi’s pretty pissed” about the text leak, he said on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast this week.

“You know, here’s a suggestion: Just don’t be assholes,” Cruz added. “Just treat each other as human beings. Have some degree, some modicum of respect.”

Though senators are often seen on their phones during hearings, and printed copies of opening statements are provided to the senators prior to the session, Cruz’s apparent disinterest in the testimony just added fuel to the fire online.