WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told organizers of the self-described “People’s Convoy” that they speak “for freedom” and it’s time for elected officials to hear their stories.
Cruz and fellow Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., met Tuesday with a large group of truckers and their supporters who have driven across the country to protest the government’s pandemic responses.
The group, largely inspired by the Canadian truckers and protesters who fought vaccine requirements and paralyzed key U.S.-Canadian border crossings, has circled the Washington, D.C-area Capital Beltway for days in what organizers insist is a peaceful, non-disruptive protest.
“That convoy, to our neighbor up north, was powerful, and they spoke out for freedom. The People’s Convoy continues that legacy,” Cruz said to the organizers at the meeting on Capitol Hill. “Your stories are powerful. And the politicians, the petty tyrants, they need to hear — and frankly, they need to leave you the hell alone.”
Brian Brase, an organizer of the convoy, said at the meeting they’re “going to keep looping the beltway until we’re heard.”
“We’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing, until we start getting more meetings like we just had today,” Brase said. “Our demands, if you want to say, have been pretty clear: end the state of emergency, end the vaccine mandates, and let’s start holding both our elected and unelected officials accountable for their actions that led to this.”
Many of the organizers in the room voiced frustrations with workplace vaccination mandates and other measures intended to limit the spread of COVID-19, like mask mandates in schools. Many of these restrictions have since been lifted or eased.
President Joe Biden most recently extended the national state of emergency, first declared by former President Donald Trump in response to the pandemic in March 2020, on Feb. 18.
Brase estimates that the group, which initially set up camp this weekend at a speedway in Hagerstown, Md., includes about 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles in total, and said that when they occupy two lanes on the Capitol Beltway, the convoy is about 6 to 7 miles long. Some have made the drive all the way from Southern California, where the cross-country protest started.
Cruz frequently threw his support behind the organizers in his prepared remarks and in response to questions from reporters.
“They want government to leave them the hell alone,” Cruz said. “They want the mandates and the emergency ended. That’s what they’re demanding, and the meetings are how they get them.”
Cruz and Johnson said it’s time for Congress to act on the People’s Convoy’s demands.
“We should vote on it. We should end the emergency. We voted two weeks ago on ending the mandates. I had an amendment to end the vaccine mandates for kids,” Cruz said, referring to a resolution he introduced in January to block a Washington, D.C. vaccine mandate in schools. “We need to get that done because it’s the right thing to do.”
Brase said if they don’t make any progress at the federal level in rolling back pandemic precautions, a call to action for pressure at the state level could be next.
“If we don’t start gaining any traction on the federal grounds, and while still staying where we are, yeah, I believe a call to action will be necessary to push into the states and help the states pressure the federal government,” Brase said.
