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Sen. Ted Cruz found an odd way to express his support for billionaire Elon Musk’s push for change at Twitter – revealing Thursday that he loves the fart noise feature included in Tesla vehicles.
The Texas Republican detailed his fascination during a discussion about Musk’s Twitter buy on the Thursday episode of his podcast, “The Verdict with Ted Cruz.”
Both Cruz, a frequent critic of Big Tech firms, and co-host Michael Knowles touted Musk’s involvement at Twitter as a victory for freedom of speech – but the senator took it a step further.
“I am so happy about it, I may go out and buy a damn Tesla,” Cruz said roughly 10 minutes into the episode. “By the way, my girls want me to get a Tesla anyway.”
“You know why the girls love the Tesla? Because the central computer makes fart noises in each of the seats. For an 11-year-old and 13-year-old, that is the coolest feature,” the senator added. “And I’ve got to admit, as a 51-year-old, that’s a pretty cool feature, although I probably shouldn’t admit that publicly as I say into a TV camera.”
Cruz was referring to an app accessible in Tesla vehicles which allows drivers to play fart sounds within the car. Users can enable the noise to play when they use their turn signal and set it up to sound as it’s coming from a specific seat.
Tesla also offered a feature allowing drivers to make their car horn sound like a fart noise until last February, when the feds prompted Musk’s company to issue a recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warned the feature could make it harder to hear a required “Pedestrian Warning System” sound.
“The fun police made us do it (sigh),” Musk tweeted at the time.
Cruz is the latest public figure to express support for Musk’s acquisition of a 9% stake in Twitter.
Conservatives have regularly accused the social media platform of suppressing right-leaning viewpoints and otherwise engaging in content moderation practices that hurt free speech.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Knowles said regarding the investment. “I think he’s a guy who, if not uniquely can do it, he’s really well-positioned. He’s putting his money where his mouth is. I hope he makes a lot of money doing it.”
“Absolutely,” Cruz added.
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