We'll see if there's more to this story than it appears because there's really no excuse for this sort of behavior, least of all from a United States senator.
Source: The Independent
Texas senator Ted Cruz appeared to contravene an airline’s mandate on masks this weekend when he was pictured without one.
In a picture shared online on Sunday, Mr Cruz was onboard an American Airlines departure when he was seen unmasked.
The airline’s own mandate on masks says all passengers should wear one, unless when eating and drinking onboard.
Mr Cruz, who was pictured with a coffee in hand, was said to have “not worn a mask once”.
“Captured today at 10:45am – Ted Cruz on a commercial flight, refusing to wear a mask,” wrote Twitter user Hosseh Enad with the picture.
He added: “This was on an American Airlines flight — their policy clearly states that masks should be worn on the flight.”
Mr Enad said Mr Cruz had not been asked to wear one on Sunday, and was not seen masked.
American Airlines told The Independent that passengers were permitted to remove their masks when eating or drinking, and that it would review the incident.
And from American Airlines' guidelines, masks are required:
A little while ago Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) blasted American Airlines for packing passengers onto their flights, making social distancing impossible, and rendering mask use all but useless,
.@AmericanAir: how many Americans will die bc you fill middle seats, w/ your customers shoulder to shoulder, hour after hour. This is incredibly irresponsible. People eat & drink on planes & must take off masks to do so. No way you aren’t facilitating spread of COVID infections. pic.twitter.com/PWG5macqgC
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) July 2, 2020
And the Tweet with the captured image of Ted Cruz, probably dutifully reading Trump's tweets.
Captured today at 10:45am — @TedCruz on a commercial flight, refusing to wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/h8DM7J4CMi
— Hosseh (@hossehenad) July 13, 2020
