UPDATE, 2/19/21, 8:30am ET: While Senator Ted Cruz initially claimed that he was merely escorting his young daughters to Cancún and immediately returning to Texas, leaked texts from a group chat involving wife Heidi Cruz tell a different story. Texts allegedly sent from Cruz to friends and neighbors, obtained by The New York Times, reveal an impromptu trip to escape their “FREEZING” house.
Cruz allegedly proposed a group trip to the Mexican vacation spot until Sunday, February 21 and raved about the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where she and her husband had stayed “many times.” She mentioned the room rates this week ($309 a night) and noted that the resort had good security. Upon arriving in the United States on February 18, her husband gave a statement to Houston’s KTRK that struck a different tone from earlier in the day, when he played the trip off as nothing but brief chaperone duties.
Senator Cruz said that the jaunt to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” and that he had begun having “second thoughts” while boarding the plane. His intent was to work remotely for a few days in Cancún, where the weather is sunny and temperatures are in the 80s. Meanwhile, in Texas his constituents remain without power and heat, freezing and hungry without the means to escape the unprecedented winter storm.
I was trying to be a dad, and all of us have made decisions — when you’ve got two girls who have been cold for two days and haven’t had heater power, and they’re saying ‘Hey, look we don’t have school why don’t we go, let’s get out of here.’ I think there are a lot of parents that would be like, ‘Look, if I can do this great.’ That’s what I wanted to do,” Cruz said. Cruz has two daughters: Caroline, 12, and Catherine, 10. “Look, it was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it.”
ORIGINAL: Once again, Meghan McCain didn’t mince words when talking about Republicans she disagrees with on The View. Meghan went after Texas senator Ted Cruz, who was pictured at the airport heading to Mexico as a historic snowstorm in his state has left millions without power, heat, water, and food. At least 20 people have died amidst the traumatic freeze. She said the “optics” of him jetting off on a luxurious family vacation while his constituents suffer are horrifying.
“What’s not helping [the people of Texas] right now is that Senator Ted Cruz was seen on a flight with his family to Cancún,” Meghan said, adding that Cruz was on his way back to the United States. “To literally flee your home state while people are freezing to death to go to Cancún? It’s very Marie Antoinette, one of the worst optics I could come up with in an era where there’s been a lot of bad political optics.”
Cruz’s poorly-timed vacation caused a social media uproar after he was spotted at the airport on February 17, bags in hand. At the same time, three million Texans were stranded without electricity, food supplies dwindling, with no way to escape due to untreated icy roads. As he heads back to Texas, hundreds of thousands are still left in the dark. The state has now ordered seven million people — a quarter of the population — to boil their tap water before drinking due to damaged and frozen pipes. That is, those who actually have tap water again.
The senator released a statement about the situation on the morning of February 18: “With school canceled 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.” He added that he had been “in constant communication” with state and local leaders during the brief trip.
Cruz’s old enemy, Seth Rogen, jumped on the senator after finding out about his Mexican getaway. “I think @SenTedCruz is desperately trying to rebrand from the ‘inspired a deadly insurrection‘ motherf**ker to the ‘left my constituents to freeze to death so I could go to Cancún’ motherf**ker, but luckily he can be both. He’s just that big a motherf**ker,” the actor tweeted on February 18.
I think @SenTedCruz is desperately trying to rebrand from the “inspired a deadly insurrection” motherfucker to the “left my constituents to freeze to death so I could go to Cancun” motherfucker, but luckily he can be both. He’s just that big a motherfucker.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) February 18, 2021
It’s definitely not the first time that a member of Donald Trump‘s inner circle was compared to the beheaded French queen. Former First Lady Melania Trump was compared to Marie Antoinette in July 2020 for renovating the White House rose garden as death tolls rose amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. People said “off with her head” to Ivanka Trump after she complained about cancel culture that June.