Texas Sen. Ted Cruz acknowledged on Thursday that he had traveled to Mexico for a family vacation this week, leaving his home state as thousands of constituents struggled without power or safe drinking water after a powerful winter storm.
The high-profile Republican, a potential White House candidate in 2024, said in a statement that he had accompanied his family after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week.
“Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz said after The Associated Press and other media outlets had reported details of the trip.
“My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” Cruz said. “We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm.”
The revelation drew immediate criticism from Democrats and Republicans in Texas and beyond as Cruz, a key ally of former President Donald Trump, contemplates the possibility of a second presidential run. The two-term senator’s current term expires in early 2025.
“That’s something that he has to answer to his constituents about,” state Republican Party Chairman Allen West said when asked whether Cruz’s travel was appropriate while Texans are without power and water.
“I’m here trying to take care of my family and look after my friends and others that are still without power,” West said. “That’s my focus.”
Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas woke up Thursday to a fourth day without power, and a water crisis was unfolding after winter storms wreaked havoc on the state’s power grid and utilities.
Texas officials ordered 7 million people — one-quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state — to boil tap water before drinking the water, after days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes.
In Austin, some hospitals faced a loss in water pressure and in some cases, heat.
Cruz’s office declined to answer specific questions about the family vacation, but his staff reached out to the Houston Police Department on Wednesday afternoon to say the senator would be arriving at the airport, according to department spokeswoman Jodi Silva. She said officers “monitored his movements” while Cruz was at the airport.
Silva could not say whether such requests are typical for Cruz’s travel or whether his staff has made a similar request for his return flight.
U.S. Capitol Police officials and the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms have encouraged lawmakers and their staff to be conscious of potential threats and to consider advising law enforcement about their travel at airports and other transportation hubs.
Cruz has been demonized by the left even before he ran for president in 2016. In more recent years, he has positioned himself as a Trump loyalist with an eye toward a potential second White House bid.
The Texas senator, who once described Trump as a “pathological liar,” championed the-then president’s call to block the certification last month of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory. That stand led to calls for Cruz’s resignation after a violent mob stormed the Capitol as Congress was affirming Biden’s win.
“Ted Cruz had already proven to be an enemy to our democracy by inciting an insurrection. Now, he is proving to be an enemy to our state by abandoning us in our greatest time of need,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said Thursday. “For the 21st time, the Texas Democratic Party calls on Ted Cruz to resign or be expelled from office.”
Daniel Barnes
Cruz’s office dismissed calls for his resignation earlier in the month.
“The left – and some grifters on the right – are consumed by partisan anger and rage,” his office said in a written statement. “Sen. Cruz will continue to work for 29 million Texans in the Senate.”
Ethan Richardson
I'm starting off by saying he threw his kids under the bus lol
Leo Gomez
So he wanted to chaperone his daughter and is already on his way back . not seeing a problem here.
Carson Allen
Leftists snowbirds do this shit all the time. But I guess it's only okay when you do it.
Ayden Anderson
Why not stay anything in advance? Should have been simple, considering the obvious optics.
I think this was a PR stunt to get Trump-like notoriety. It's too trollish to be stupid.
Carter Stewart
No, it's also not okay either.
It's not okay for elected leaders to not lead.
Christian Clark
>NOOOO YOU CANT BE AN ELECTED OFFICIAL AND HAVE A PERSONAL LIFE TOO!! okay fascist
Brandon Reyes
who the fuck cares
Blake Reed
You cannot defend this lmao
John Mitchell
Look at that suitcase. He obviously wasn't planning on just staying for a day and traveling back to Texas. He was trying to escape the disaster in his state and only went back after getting called out for it en masse.
Josiah Collins
Probs the people of Texas who can't get clean water, power, and heat.
Kevin Ortiz
Unironically yes. Part of being a publicly elected official involves sacrificing your personal time for the greater good in the event of an emergency. This isn't even unique to public officials, if a stack of TPS reports got burnt to ash by an intern smoking pot than it would 100% be expected for the wage slaves to come in on their weekend to redo them. Of course Cruz is an empty little man who only likes being a senator for the prestige and has no business being in power, so he did what was expected of him.
Asher Cooper
>NOOOO YOU CANT JUST TRAVEL ITS IRRESPONSIBLE
meanwhile dozens of leftist politicians travelled and broke their own COVID guidelines and hosted extravagant parties but the media never lynched them for it.
Aiden Walker
Source?
Isaiah Reyes
i bet you don't want minimum-wage "essential" workers to get hazard pay for working in outrageously unsafe conditions tho
Zachary Hall
Yes that was bad too
Anthony Hernandez
Google it shill. I'm not going to go through the trouble for your sake.
It was from both parties but the narrative spin that is unfolding now is that "leftist" politicians are being hypocrites.
Leo Hill
Just fucking childish attacks for no reason. As if he would do anything had he stayed.
You cannot book vacations in advance becuase you must stay if something happens?
NO
Luis Williams
>shill
It's called being considerate and diligent with sources
Dylan Hill
Gavin Newsome threw a maskless party where no one social distanced. Nancy Pelosi refused to wear a mask while getting her hair done. To name a few
Chase Gutierrez
Yeah the shit puke maggot garbage media is a bunch of biased bullshit!
How the fuck you people not see how it went from attack dog do defender the second a democrat got elected?
The media needs to be hung from lamp posts.
William Russell
It is just petty bullshit from fags that wanted muh beto for some reason.
Charles Myers
Hit yourself in the face for being such a biased asshole.
Only some NPR CNN faggot would not know about that shit.
Benjamin Gutierrez
>It was from both parties but the narrative spin that is unfolding now is that "leftist" politicians are being hypocrites.
Not to mention the media did indeed offer criticism of it.
John Thompson
Sorry sweetie, that's not a source.
Christian Miller
As if you even care.
Julian Jones
I know it's hard to believe for conservatives and fascists, but other people actually do care about facts and evidence.
Jaxson Thomas
A fucking bot could post what you have. You are just wasting natural resources.
EVERYTHING about the leftist position ignores facts and evidence in favor of some feeling based hope.
Choke to fucking death.
Lucas Green
Source?
Joshua Anderson
But it is the left that is being hypocritical because it’s their guidelines they’re breaking, conservatives have always been open about rebelling against the leftist forced lockdown
Asher Price
Liberals aren't leftists.
Angel Sanders
>said in a statement that he had accompanied his family after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week.
>“Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon Ah, bless his shriveled little coal black heart, he was just practising them good 'ol "family values" the GOP always talks about but never applies. Sure, Teddy, sure, you were just flying down with them overnight with a suitcase containing your entire wardrobe.
If one needs a poster of pond scum, use an official campaign photo of Teddy boi. How did you reelect this sack of shit TX? Are you really as inbred as Kentuckians who continue to reelect Moscow Mitch and Ayn Rand Paul even though they bend them over and ream them continually?
Noah Roberts
Yes they are, it is 2021, stop trying to reference the past.
Adam Jenkins
The DNC platform calls for seizing the means of production and abolishing the commodity form now?
Anthony Peterson
El Rato leaves the sinking ship first. Why does this not surprise me?
Camden Watson
The high-profile weasel, a potential White House candidate in 2024, said in a statement that he had accompanied his family after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week.
He blamed his daughters! Ted Cruz truly is a very bad man!
Hedgehog man bad
Wyatt Cruz
No they don't openly call for that shit because they know it would be rebuked, they use other language, make no mistake that is what you pukes want.
Easton Wright
Because you are brainwashed faggot that cannot think for yourself.
Kayden Gomez
Take your meds.
Charles Kelly
Yes, if you leftist garbage had your way everyone would be drugged up so they would accept the garbage you demand.
Jacob Mitchell
If I had my way you'd be a little sissy catboy gagging on my cock after serving your sentence in the fascist re-education and forced feminisation camps.
Jose Gonzalez
If us leftist garbage had our way you'd be receiving the comprehensive and high quality psychiatric care that every American should automatically be entitled to by virtue of being a citizen of the richest country on the planet.
William Gutierrez
Muh richest is not a reason to do anything loser. Also thanks to people like you citizens do not even mean anything.
Fuck you.
Dominic Cox
Wait, did Ted Cruz actually blame his daughters for this?
Angel Torres
>I pitch fit and expect to be taken seriously you're like an edgy teenager. next you'll be at hot topic wearing ripped black jeans.
John Jones
All of this is about you faggots pitching a fit.
Ayden Butler
>people in texas pitching a fit >call them leftist to make my fee fees better mkay
Noah White
Yes. His tween daughters drugged and kidnapped him, and led him onto the plane with a suitcase packed with enough clothes and diapers for a 1 week stay.
Cameron Miller
You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Bringing a suitcase on a short trip is not unusual and not a sign of anything.
Joseph Cook
>Why isn't a senator doing the governor's job?
Easton White
Only someone as terrible as Ted Cruz would: 1. Go to Cancun while the state he represents suffers from one of the worst natural disasters caused by corrupt republican policies. 2. Lie and blame it on his children for leaving for Cancun. 3. Be outed by his friends sharing texts with the media to prove he lied about why he came back so soon.
Jayden Mitchell
It's really very Trumpian. If I were a conspiracy theorist like 70% of the GOP I would argue he planned exactly that scenario to demonstrate to the magat cult he could match Trump evil for evil any time.
Luke Wood
The fucked up thing is because Trump was so corrupt and criminal, if he were in office, his administration would have committed some crime or atrocity that would have sucked the air out of this story.
But since we got an actual America as president again, this is going to be a multi day controversy. Of course the question is, will the voters remember it, and will enough not get suppressed by Republican neo-Jim Crow laws.
Tyler Reyes
Looks like he's backing down and apologizing. lol, no one can be Trump even if they wanted to. It probably doesn't help that Ted Cruz is, well, Ted Cruz.
Evan Cox
He didn't apologize, he just said 'it was a mistake', he's still blaming everyone else for it, even his kids.
Eli Phillips
Dude fucking left his dog at home. I don't think you could've done something so universally regarded as a dick move without tossing a puppy in a blender.
Hudson King
Chris Hayes summed up why conservatives are both such awful human beings and can never govern. It's a two for one deal since he bashes the right wing's most famous cuck who decided to try and defend Cruz's actions. twitter.com/WUTangKids/status/1362592343195549697
Zachary Garcia
>Ted blames his daughters for this >Ted didn't have the balls to defend his wife against Trump and just took all the abuse So can we take this as confirmation that Jamal is fucking all the females in the Cruz family while Teddy watches or are they getting fucked by Carlos since it's Texas
Zachary Hall
The scary thing is right wing propaganda is still doing it's damnest to defend Ted Cruz, so even if real Americans find his actions inexcusable, that might not penetrate the fascist bubble Republicans have set up for their cult.
Alexander White
hannity: dude if democrats had their way and got the green new deal literally everyone in texas would be dead right now. and then they'd take ur guns. hire me fox.
Alexander Davis
How does Cruz keep winning elections? Like I understand Texas is a very red-leaning state so he still beats Dems but doesn't everyone fucking hate him? How has he not been primaried yet?
Parker Smith
dumb partisan tribalist
Thomas Perez
Tribalist faggots Your fellow countryman is not the problem here
Leo Robinson
Pretty sure when you instigate a coup you've openly stated your refusal to live in the country as it is.
Easton Fisher
But Texans don't want to be countryman with the rest of the US.
Adrian Sanchez
you know if this was some lefty that the republicans would be eating him/her up. Stop being so brainwashed by your political party
Zachary Ramirez
what's with the fucking ted cruz defense force? this shit is indefensible, your fucking constituents are freezing and starving to death, and good old ted is sipping mai thais on the beach and eating five star meals. inb4 b-b-but liberal politicians went out during lockdown yes thats fucking terrible and extremely hypocritical, and so is this. the fucking moral myopia on this site is astounding.
Jaxson Turner
He's a senator, he has no power in the Texas state government. There's no hypocrisy on his part here, he never told anyone to stay home during the ice storm.
Hudson Bell
the hypocrisy comes in when you take into account that ted dismantled the regulations that would winterize the gas and renewable energy sources, made it all private so his rich backers could make a bit more extra cash and give him even more, and then when the consequences of his actions fucks over the state, he abandons his post to go to somewhere nice and warm while the people who continually elect him freeze and starve. if nothing else it's extremely bad optics, even if theres nothing immediate he could do to help the whole state he could at least show solidarity with his constituents and suffer with them. not that he would really be suffering, of course.
Julian Perez
>He's a senator, he has no power in the Texas state government. That doesn't restrict him from helping out on his own accord. No one's expecting him to be coordinating with ERCOT or deploying the NG, but if Beto and AOC can get involved Cruz could too. Shit, go down to NRG Stadium, hand out one packet of hand-warmers for your photo-op, and be unassailable. There were a thousand things he could have done, with only one wrong option. He chose the one wrong option. And in typical Cruzian fashion, he got pugnacious when questioned about his choice ("my daughters (actually my wife) made me do it!" "but muh libural covid hypocrisy!")
Austin Hill
>but if Beto and AOC can get involved Cruz could too How are they involved- sending tweets? AOC is a Rep for NY and Beto is a spineless cuckold.
>Shit, go down to NRG Stadium, hand out one packet of hand-warmers for your photo-op, and be unassailable. So what you're saying is all you really care about is appearances?
>There were a thousand things he could have done, with only one wrong option. He chose the one wrong option. Right, only Democrats are allowed to go on vacation and go to parties during a national crisis/pandemic, silly us. How could we forget?
Ryan Sullivan
Beto is working phones organizing wellness checks for senior citizens and AOC raised a $1m for Texas non-profits. The kind of shit you'd expect a senator, with huge amounts of influence but no real state power, to be doing during a crisis in their state.
Elijah Cox
the irony in this post is so funny
Isaac Gray
Ted Cruz isn't going to fuck you for simping for him on Dab Forums, bro.
James Thomas
>Beto is working phones organizing wellness checks for senior citizens and AOC raised a $1m for Texas non-profits. If they're leftist non profits, no one in that state will see a dime of that money unless they're a well connected political player.
>The kind of shit you'd expect a senator, with huge amounts of influence but no real state power, to be doing during a crisis in their state. What's AOC doing about all of the senior citizens that got murdered in her state by her corrupt fascist state governor? Nothing?
This is about appearances again, isn't it? Yeah.
Ayden Bell
>"What do people expect Ted to do? He's not the governor" >"well, he could help in his private capacity like these people did" >"oh yeah? what'd they do, send nice tweets?" >"actually they raised a bunch of money and tried to make sure senior citizens weren't freezing in their homes" >"OH YEAH? WELL SOME OF THAT MONEY MIGHT HAVE GONE TO A LIBERALISH ORGANIZATION SO IT DOESN'T COUNT FAGGOT!" Real rough morning shift for the TCIDF isn't it? What do they pay you in anyway? Ritz-Carlton points? United Airlines miles?
Jack Lewis
Alright fam imma just be an elected official that has no responsibility toward helping the people. Gim me dat pay check I'm out.
