Joey Arcidiacono, a thirty-three-year-old man, was recently jailed and charged with a felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for throwing full cans of White Claw hard seltzer at Texas Senator Ted Cruz during the victory parade for the Houston Astros.
But, according to Arcidiacono’s lawyer, at least, Joey wasn’t chucking cans at Sen. Cruz in the hope of hurting him. Rather, he wanted to give the Senator an opportunity to go viral and look a bit more fun and normal. He wanted Cruz to catch one of the hard seltzers and then chug it during the parade.
The man who threw a White Claw at Ted Cruz wanted him to catch it and chug it according to his lawyer pic.twitter.com/yT8Wlmosif
— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) November 11, 2022
Joey’s lawyer said as much in a statement released to Twitter, saying:
This is a statement on behalf of Astros fan Joey Arcidiacono:
“Political violence is never acceptable. What happened at the parade was not political violence nor ‘aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.’
We have seen various videos and understand why Senator Cruz’s security detail was alert for potential violence.
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Instead, this was an Astros fan trying to toss drinks from his cooler to the Senator during a championship parade and not realizing how it would be perceived until he saw security’s reaction.
The night before the parade, Joey texted a friend, ‘My dream would be to throw one of the players a beer. Doubt it would happen haha but that would be epic’
Many generous, fun, semi-stupid, legendary moments have happened during Astros Championship Parades. Hopefully, many more of those moments will happen in the years to come.
Fans throw cans to people in championship parades all the time. That is a widely known thing. To get them to chug.
Astros pitcher Ryne Stanek set the legendary chugging bar high that day. The Houston Astros official social media account featured him chugging a bear a fan threw to him. That fan posted his own video showing how excited he was it happened.
That was stupid, good fun. This ended up as not fun.
Joey apologizes for how his actions alarmed Senator Cruz, his family, and his security detail and put a damper on an otherwise beautiful celebration for millions of Houstonians. With this fuller context, we ask for grace and hope Senator Cruz declines to maintain charges.
Given the on-going legal process, we have no further comment on this situation, and request others to respect the privacy of Joey and his family. Though, we would like to add, GO ASTROS, CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!”
A statement from Houston attorney Bill Stradley regarding his client Joey Arcidiacono.
The purpose is correct and add some context to publicly shared information regarding Joey's arrest at the Astros 2022 Championship Parade. pic.twitter.com/vaJdC7KJ3c
— Stradley Law Firm (@HoustonCrimLaw) November 9, 2022
So that’s hilarious. Cruz should obviously withdraw the charges, accept the good fun bit, and then chug a beer with Joey outside the jail. Just think how funny of an ad it’d make when he surely runs again!
Many on Twitter expressed that sentiment upon seeing the story behind the seltzer-throwing incident.
Colin Pruett, a young, conservative commentator, for instance, tweeted “FULL PARDON“.
Another posted a funny “Better Call Saul” parody quote, saying: “People of the court, my client here is just a friendly, hospitable guy who simply wanted to offer a refreshing alcoholic beverage to Mr. Cruz when he tossed it at him. Should we blame HIM for Mr. Cruz not catching it? Is it a crime nowadays to offer a fellow brother a drink?“