Texas constituents take to the internet to take down Sen. Ted Cruz's trip to Mexico
As the state of Texas was in a deep freeze, Sen. Ted Cruz was feeling the heat.
Cruz, who took his family this week to sunny Cancun, Mexico, for a vacation while citizens in the Lone Star State struggled during a deadly winter storm, was raked over the coals Thursday by some of his constituents.
The Republican searched for cameras to plead his case once he returned from his short-lived stay in paradise.
He admitted the trip was “a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it. I was wanting to be a good dad.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, back in Texas, says it was "obviously a mistake" to go to Cancun.
You can hear protestors chanting "Resign!" in the background. pic.twitter.com/FwA6Dsg4fv
— The Recount (@therecount) February 19, 2021
Cruz said he knew he had responsibilities and had intended to work remotely by phone and online. “But I needed to be here, and that’s why I came back,” he said.
Millions of Texans are without power, running water, or heat in the severe four-day storm, which has been linked to more than 20 deaths.
Cruz said he planned to “go home and keep working to get the grid reopened, to get power restored, to get the water back on.”
The first photos transmitted from Perseverance on Mars. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/Taa10NCvyh
— Heather Bucha Whaley (@HeatherWhaley) February 18, 2021
“A lot of Texans are hurting and this crisis is frustrating. It’s frustrating for millions of Texans. It shouldn’t happen,” he said.
But Texans weren’t buying it. And they let him hear it via the web.
Just drove by Ted Cruz’s house in Houston. His lights are off but a neighbor told me the block got its power back last night. Also, Ted appears to have left behind the family poodle. pic.twitter.com/TmLyGQkASy
— Michael Hardy (@mkerrhardy) February 18, 2021
So we’re really calling Ted Cruz’s self-serving evacuation to Cancún in the midst of a winter storm a “political blunder” and not “actionable cause for a public trip to the guillotine,” huh?
— Jeremy Parish, the other son of Godzilla (@gamespite) February 19, 2021
Today:
*Beto O’Rourke organized over 300,000 wellness check phone calls to senior citizens in Texas.*Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez helped raise over $1 million for Texas charities online.
*Ted Cruz took a late nonstop flight from Cancun to Houston and then did three TV interviews.
— Will McAvoy (@WillMcAvoyACN) February 19, 2021
Hey @tedcruz it seems you have some free time on your hands, want to help gather snow for the bathtub so we can flush our toilet? #FledCruzResign pic.twitter.com/P6KOGdSG7r
— Logan Clark, Esq. (@loganc89) February 19, 2021
Hey #CancunCruz @tedcruz - since many of your constituents were melting snow to flush toilets while you tried to sneak away to Mexico, did you at least bring us back some water from your holiday? Because I’m tired of melting buckets of snow. pic.twitter.com/1FZdODPlAe
— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) February 19, 2021
Bret Gibson is a TribLive digital producer. A South Hills resident, he started working for the Trib in 1998. He can be reached at bgibson@triblive.com.
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