Cruz flew off to Mexico on vacation amid Texas crisis
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, traveled to Mexico on vacation as his state faced a major crisis and power outages.
Cruz said in a statement his daughters had wanted to take the trip to Cancun with their friends. “With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz said.
Pictures of Cruz at the airport and on a plane first started circulating on Wednesday night, drawing the ire of his progressive critics amid winter storms. Nearly a half-million customers in Texas were still without power Thursday after frigid temperatures kicked large shares of the state’s power plants off its grid this week, leaving more than 4 million in the dark and triggering outrage.
Cruz had previously criticized Austin Mayor Steve Adler for flying to Cabo in a private jet while telling Austinites to stay home, writing in a Dec. 2 tweet, “hypocrites. Complete and utter hypocrites.” The post began recirculating on social media as pictures of his trip to Mexico went viral.
In a Tuesday radio interview, Cruz told Texans to stay home amid the severe weather. “Don’t risk it,” Cruz said.
Cruz later said he and his staff were “in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas.”
“Guess which US Senator from Texas flew to Cancun while the state was freezing to death and having to boil water?” wrote Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston.
Wu told USA TODAY he had not taken the photo, but it had been passed along to him by former congressional candidate Sima Ladjevardian, whose friend was on the flight with Cruz.