Republican Senator Ted Cruz was roasted on social media for misunderstanding new beer-drinking guidelines. The Senator appeared on Newsmax with a group of men standing behind him and said that “idiots” have decided to limit drinkers to just two beers per week. On camera, Cruz opened a beer bottle and said, “I gotta tell you, if they want us to drink two beers a week, frankly they can kiss my ass.”
The video appeared on Twitter with clarification that there is no intention to limit American drinkers to a small number of beers. The clarification was accompanied by an article describing how Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told the Daily Mail that US guidelines on drinking are up for review in 2025.
The guidelines are simply recommendations by medical professionals on how much alcohol is safe to drink. Current recommendations are two bottles of beer, small glasses of wine, or two shots of spirits per day for men, and one for women.
Dr. Koob said that Canada recommends two drinks per week, and if US guidelines are altered, they could head in the Canadian direction.
Social media users ripped into Cruz saying the amount recommended is not mandatory and people can ignore advice and drink as much as they like. One commentator described the video of the Senator as the single most embarrassing thing they’d ever seen, while others called him fake and disingenuous. Some pointed to his Ivy League education and said it doesn’t chime with the “tough guy” Texan image he tries to project.
Cruz is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He worked as a lawyer until entering politics as a policy adviser in George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign. He would go on to join the team of attorneys that fought for recounts in Florida on behalf of President Bush. He ran for the Republican nomination in 2016 and refused to endorse Donald Trump.
