Cruz jokes about Cancún, tells media to ‘lighten up’ at CPAC

ORLANDO, Fla. — Sen. Ted Cruz has decided to own it.

Appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference just days after he was caught fleeing to Mexico for a vacation in the midst of a deadly snowstorm in Texas,

Cruz tried to make light of his lapse in judgment.

“I gotta say, Orlando is awesome,” he said while opening his speech. “It’s not as nice as Cancún — but it’s nice!”

Cruz, a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, had been roundly criticized by prominent Democrats

for abandoning his constituents in a time of strife. But here, the moment made for a winning laugh line.

Much of Cruz’s speech went this way, with the Texas senator, his voice at times sounding like a growl, entreating the left and the media to “lighten up” about many of the issues that have defined the

U.S. in the past year.

Shortly before Cruz’s speech, CPAC organizers had been jeered by the audience when they paused the program to plead with them to wear their masks. Still, Cruz went ahead in making fun of pandemicera rules like wearing masks in restaurants, and he also joked about the protests against police brutality that spread across major cities last summer, some becoming violent.

There had been no such demonstrations in Houston, he said, “because let’s be very clear: If there had been, they would have discovered what the people of Texas think about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.”