Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who requested this week that people should try not to be \u201cassholes\u201d and treat others with \u201csome modicum of respect,\u201d was pictured staring at his phone Tuesday during testimony at the Senate hearings investigating the deadly insurrection he helped inspire.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u201cworst attack on law enforcement and our democracy\u201d in his 30-year career. He described how officers were beaten with fists, bats, sticks and pipes.<\/p>\n
Sund said his former agency had been prepared for an increased level of violence, but \u201cnone of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred.\u201d As he said this, the C-SPAN livestream from the chamber cut to Cruz, who was on his phone.<\/p>\n
A representative of Cruz did not immediately return HuffPost\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After cutting his trip short amid massive backlash, Cruz blamed his daughters and then the media, and raged that someone in his wife\u2019s group text leaked her messages about the trip to The New York Times, exposing his lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeidi\u2019s pretty pissed\u201d about the text leak, he said on the conservative \u201cRuthless\u201d podcast this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, here\u2019s a suggestion: Just don\u2019t be assholes,\u201d Cruz added. \u201cJust treat each other as human beings. Have some degree, some modicum of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0Cruz\u2019s apparent disinterest in the testimony just added fuel to the fire online.\u00a0<\/p>\n