As reported by the Dallas Morning News’ Emily Caldwell, the parents of Trevor Reed — a former United States marine who was taken as a prisoner by Russia after an alleged altercation with a police officer back in 2019 and was recently part of a negotiated prison swap — “gushed” about several elected officials in their state of Texas who worked together to free their dear son from the torturous prison he was subjected to at the hands of the Russians.
But one prominent, albeit controversial Texas name was noticeably absent from the Reed family’s praises and gratitude — Mr. Cancun himself, Republican Senator Ted Cruz. According to Caldwell, “that was no accident, it turns out.”
Caldwell penned a brutal column that was released in the Dallas Morning News, detailing the Reed family’s disgust and disappointment with their state’s notorious lawmaker, after he seems Cruz did absolutely nothing to pitch in and help bring Trevor Reed back home.
Joey and Paula Reed are residents of a suburb southwest of Fort Worth, Granbury, and their son Trevor, a former United States Marine, was arrested and taken prisoner in Moscow, Russia back in 2019. It was alleged that Trevor was intoxicated and was being driven to the police station by an officer when he allegedly grabbed the officer’s arm and caused him to swerve the vehicle. Russian authorities claimed that this move put the officer’s life in danger and ultimately charged Trevor with assaulting the officer and sentenced him to 9 years in a Russian prison.
As would most any parent, Trevor’s mom and dad asserted that their son was wrongfully accused and imprisoned for the crime and maintained the full support of U.S. authorities in their assertion, including U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan. Sullivan referred to the charges against Joey and Paula’s son as “absurd.” Back in March, the Reeds were able to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House and told the press that they were “very pleased” with the conversation and meeting they had with him and “very appreciative of him hearing us out.”
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But when it came to their own state senator, not only did Trevor’s parents have no praises to give him, they openly lambasted the Republican TX lawmaker for doing absolutely nothing that was even remotely useful or helpful to their son — with Joey Reed going so far as to call the Cancun runaway a “son of a b*tch.”
“He didn’t do anything,” Trevor’s father Joey Reed blasted the Texas Trump-loving senator, refusing to hold back a word. “He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that. I don’t care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch.”
Caldwell writes in her column that Joey claimed he was “unaware of any significant behind-the-scenes efforts by Cruz and has no recollection of the senator’s staff even telling the family he was doing that.”
Trevor’s father goes on to explain that he and his wife actually reached out to Cruz’s office as soon as their son was first arrested in Russia, and once more when they found out that Trevor had been sentenced to a staggering 9 years in a Russian prison. Joey explains that a Cruz staffer told him flat out that the senator would not publicly help them or their son, because he was “such an enemy of Putin” and had taken a public, vocal stance against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would have allowed Russia to bypass Ukraine and sell gasoline directly to Germany.
Joey recollected to Caldwell that Cruz was “afraid that if he says anything, it will hurt your son,” according to the staffer, but admitted that the Reed family never did buy this excuse. After that, Ted Cruz “never said another word” about the entire situation. That is until Trevor was finally released in a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US. Then, Cruz suddenly has something to say about it all again, taking to his Twitter with a new post expressing how “relieved” he was that Trevor “has been freed from his wrongful detention by Russia” and could now “be reunited with his family.”
I’m relieved that Trevor Reed has been freed from his wrongful detention by Russia. This Marine will now be reunited with his family and get the medical treatment that he needs. Ambassador John Sullivan should be commended for the invaluable work he did in freeing Trevor. 1/x
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) April 27, 2022
Apparently, Ted Cruz had the audacity to call up the Reed family upon Trevor’s return home, but Joey Reed spared no punches in his response to the GOP senator:
And I told him right on the phone, I said, “Where have you been for the last two and a half years?” Joey Reed said. “I hit him point blank: ‘We are not appreciative.’ He said, ‘Well, anything I can do,’ and I said, ‘We said we needed your help two and a half years ago, not now.'”
When the Dallas Morning News reached out to Cruz’s office for comments on the matter, he was unsurprisingly chock full of excuses, claiming that his office was “repeatedly advised by Administration officials that my taking a public role in this specific case would be counterproductive and that because of my role fighting to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, leaders in Russia may well have linked the two issues,” which he claimed, “would have endangered Trevor and delayed his release.”
The senator went on to add that he was “very sorry that Trevor’s family interpreted this as not prioritizing his release.”
The Reeds had absolutely no use for his sorry apology and quickly pointed out that other lawmakers were also staunch Putin critics, but still did all they could to help their son.
In another damning blast at the senator’s excuse for his lack of action, University of Texas at Austin Professor Jeremi Suri explained, “Oftentimes, the State Department does ask senators and members of the House to quiet down on certain things, but rarely, rarely if ever, has Senator Cruz followed that,” pointing out other times Cruz has made public comments about other Americans who were detained in foreign countries. “So it would be strange if in this case, he listened.”
Suri also lambasted Cruz’s attempt to paint himself as some sort of world-renowned Putin adversary, stating, “He is not held in a special category by Russian diplomats, I can tell you that as a fact.”
He’s just a garbage human being. Plain and simple.
Featured image via screen capture
