Ted Cruz faces scrutiny after meeting with Uvalde victim’s family

Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) meeting with the family of a Uvalde school shooting victim wasn't enough to sway his stance on banning assault weapons.

Now, the senator is facing scrutiny for appearing heartless as photos of the meeting circulate on social media. On September 14, Kimberly Mata-Rubio, mother of slain Alexandria Aniyah “Lexi” Rubio, took to Twitter with details about her encounter with the Texas lawmaker.

During the meeting, Mata-Rubio revealed they showed Cruz their last photo of their child lying in a casket and he still declined to even consider changing his stance on assault weapons.

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With a photo from the meeting, Mata-Rubio tweeted, "Felix shared our last photo of Lexi - in her child-size casket - as we asked to protect his constituents by supporting a federal ban on assault weapons. He declined. Instead, he said he supports increasing law enforcement presence on school campuses."

In wake of the latest scrutiny, Cruz's spokesperson addressed the situation with The Texas Tribune saying, Cruz "'saw firsthand the pain and grief that the unspeakable violence at Robb Elementary school caused during his meeting with the family."

Per the news outlet, the couple agreed to meet with Cruz because they were interested in hearing his proposed plan for school safety. According to Mata-Rubio, the lawmaker, per HuffPost, "suggested more money for mental health workers as well as school resource officers."

However, the grieving mother expressed apprehension about the proposed plan as she is unsure that will make the children feel safer.

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“After meeting with them, Sen. Cruz went to the Senate floor to fight for his school safety legislation,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, Senate Democrats blocked it with no explanation of why they don’t support doubling the number of police officers in schools, hiring 15,000 school-based mental health professionals, and increasing the physical security for children in schools.”

Despite Cruz's spokesperson releasing a statement, many social media users have assessed the photo based on what they see. Now, Cruz is being criticized for appearing unfazed altogether.

"He looks annoyed and is holding his phone. He’s disrespectful as hell," one Twitter user wrote. "My heart goes out to all the families affected and the people of Texas that are unfortunately under-represented by this clown."

Another user wrote, "The body language of that man as he’s looking at the photo of a child in her casket is chillingly nonchalant."

One user also pushed back against Cruz's theory about the presence of law enforcement increasing safety on school campuses. "There was significant law enforcement presence on that particular school campus on May 24, [Ted Cruz]," one user wrote, "but it was the assault weapon which kept them from doing anything."

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