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Photos purportedly exhibiting Ted Cruz board a United Airways Flight to Cancun, Mexico from Houston, TX.
Supply: @Ian McBride by way of Twitter
Is Sen. Ted Cruz now going to be often known as “Flyin’ Ted”?
Cruz sparked widespread outrage Thursday for flying from Houston to Cancun, Mexico, for a household trip at the same time as tens of millions of his fellow Texans froze due to traditionally low temperatures and widespread energy outages.
After hours of his spokesmen not responding to media requests for remark in regards to the journey he took Wednesday, Cruz issued a press release Thursday afternoon that stated he took the journey as a result of his daughters requested him to take action.
“Our houses are freezing and our lights are out. Like tens of millions of Texans, our household misplaced warmth and energy too,” Cruz stated.
1000’s of Twitter posts blasted Cruz for the ill-timed jaunt after photographs circulated on-line of him at a Houston airport ready to board the flight Wednesday afternoon, after which onboard the airplane.
On Thursday, different pictures confirmed somebody with the Republican’s final title and first preliminary of his authorized first title — Rafael — standing by for a United Airways flight from Cancun again to Houston. That flight is scheduled to depart Thursday afternoon.
On the time, the temperature in Houston was simply 34 levels Fahrenheit — 50 levels colder than Cancun.
“This has been an infuriating week for Texans. The best state within the biggest nation on this planet has been with out energy. We have now meals strains, gasoline strains, and folks sleeping on the neighbors’ homes,” Cruz stated.
“With faculty cancelled for the week, our ladies requested to make a journey with associates. Eager to be dad, I flew down with them final night time and am flying again this afternoon,” Cruz stated.
A supply near Cruz stated that the senator, following federal well being tips, took a Covid-19 check and obtained a unfavourable consequence earlier than his deliberate flight again to the US.
“My employees and I are in fixed communication with state and native leaders to unravel what occurred in Texas,” Cruz stated.
“We wish our energy again, our water on, and our houses heat. My workforce and I’ll proceed utilizing all our sources to maintain Texans knowledgeable and protected.”
Photos purportedly exhibiting Ted Cruz with Heidi Cruz (circled) board a United Airways Flight to Cancun, Mexico from Houston, TX.
Supply: @Ian McBride by way of Twitter
A Houston Police Division spokesman instructed NBC Information that Cruz’s employees requested the division on Wednesday afternoon to help Cruz in his arrival and actions by means of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the place there was a scheduled flight at 4:44 p.m. native time to Cancun.
Photos posted on social media present a lady who seems to be Cruz’s spouse Heidi with him in that airport Wednesday.
The Dallas Morning Information reported that masks seen on Cruz from the airport is similar masks that Cruz wore throughout final month’s inauguration of President Joe Biden, and through final week’s Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
The masks has the picture of a black cannon and the phrases ” ‘Come and Take It,’ a design paying homage to flags utilized by Texans through the 1835 revolution in opposition to Mexico – a provocative selection, given the vacation spot,” the newspaper famous.
The Texas Democratic Celebration known as on Cruz to resign or be expelled from workplace in mild of the obvious journey.
“In the course of one of many worst crises in Texas historical past, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz jetted off to Cancun, Mexico. His constituents in Texas stay trapped within the chilly, with out clear water, warmth, or heat meals. 37 of them have died,” the occasion stated in a press release.
“That is what we have come to count on from Texas Republican management. They’re self-serving, inept, corrupt politicians who assume that being in workplace entitles them to do no matter they need.”
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who misplaced an in depth Senate election to Cruz in 2018, blasted him throughout an interview Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Cruz “is vacationing in Cancun proper now when individuals are actually freezing to dying within the state that he was elected to signify and serve,” stated O’Rourke, who in 2019 campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Julian Castro, the previous San Antonio mayor who served as secretary of the U.S. Housing and City Growth Division, tweeted, “In crises like these, members of Congress play a essential position connecting their constituents to emergency providers and help.”
Cruz “needs to be on the telephone with federal companies, not on a visit to Mexico,” Castro wrote.
Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki was requested about Cruz’s journey throughout a White Home information convention.
“Nicely, I haven’t got any updates on the precise location of Sen. Ted Cruz, nor does anybody on the White Home,” Psaki stated.
She harassed that the Biden administration is concentrated on working with native Texas leaders to deal with {the electrical} energy disaster in that state.
Ted Cruz listed on standby listing for a United Airways flight
Supply: United Airways
On Tuesday, Cruz was roasted on Twitter and elsewhere for having mocked California’s personal energy outages months in the past.
In response, Cruz tweeted that day, “I bought no protection. A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.”
In December, Cruz criticized Democratic officers who didn’t observe their very own coronavirus pandemic restrictions, amongst them Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, Texas, who himself flew to Mexico for his daughter’s wedding ceremony in November at the same time as he urged his metropolis’s residents to remain dwelling.
“Hypocrites. Full and utter hypocrites,” Cruz wrote in his Dec. 2 tweet.
In July, photographs exhibiting Cruz and not using a masks on throughout an American Airways flight and at an airport gate have been extensively reported.
The one that took the photographs, who labored for the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee, famous that American Airways coverage required vacationers to put on facial coverings.
Cruz’s spokeswoman claimed on the time that Cruz had quickly eliminated his masks to drink espresso.
Trump, whereas working in opposition to Cruz within the 2016 Republican presidential nomination contests, recurrently used the scornful nickname “Lyin’ Ted” when speaking about him.
Cruz later grew to become an ardent Trump supporter, and final month unsuccessfully tried to get Congress to reject the affirmation of Biden’s Electoral Faculty victories in a number of states.
That affirmation course of was interrupted Jan. 6 by the invasion of the Capitol complicated by 1000’s of supporters of Trump. 5 folks, together with a Capitol police workplace, died because of that riot.
– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
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