Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Cancun Wednesday amid a state of emergency in Texas as millions of people are stuck without water, heat and power during freezing temperatures.
Photographs of Mr. Cruz at the airport with his wife and daughter as well as onboard an airplane went viral on Twitter Wednesday night.
Fox News confirmed through an anonymous source on Thursday morning that it was in fact the Texas Republican taking a vacation.
The Washington Times has not yet received a response from Mr. Cruz or his office about the reported trip.
The images were met with widespread backlash from liberals, who pointed to Mr. Cruz having criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, for showing off expensive ice cream in her San Francisco home during the COVID-19 pandemic, or his past criticism of former President Obama’s golf trips.
“Just remembering the time Ted Cruz got mad about Nancy Pelosi eating ice cream,” tweeted Tim Hogan, a Democratic consultant.
As of Wednesday when the senator flew south, more than a million Texans did not have power and about 7 million were under boil water orders — if they had access to water at all.
Hey Ted Cruz @tedcruz
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) February 18, 2021
How’s it going mitigating the power outage and natural disaster affecting millions of people in your state of Texas?
Never mind, my bad, don’t wanna disturb you on your vacation. I see you flew to Cancun while your state is in the middle of a crisis. pic.twitter.com/NUOBmRr59d
Jeff Sites, a Democratic congressional candidate in Ohio, tweeted a link to a news story with options to donate resources for Texans in need.
“If you’d like to do more for Texas than Ted Cruz, the @TexasTribune has links to nonprofits that could use your donations,” Mr. Sites wrote.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson, though, came to Mr. Cruz’s defense.
“The fact that people think Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, can do anything about a state power grid, even his own, is rather demonstrative of the ignorance of so many people who cover politics. They’d rather performative drama than substance,” Mr. Erickson tweeted.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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