- Rep. Michael McCaul slammed Senator Ted Cruz for going to Cancun, Mexico, during the winter storms in Texas.
- “If a crisis hits my state, I’m there. I’m not going on vacation,” McCaul told CNN.
- Axios reported Sunday that Cruz invited his roommate on the trip.
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Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas criticized Senator Ted Cruz for flying to Cancun, Mexico last week when winter storms paralyzed Texas’ energy infrastructure and knocked out power to millions of Texans.
McCaul, the top Republican in the State Department, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that Cruz’s decision to leave and return in a hurry because he was facing a setback was wrong .
“Look, if there’s a crisis in my state, I’m there. I’m not going on vacation,” McCaul said.
“I know that Mr. Cruz called it a mistake, and he liked it, but I think it was a big mistake, and I was on the ground helping my people and my voters, and that’s what we need to do in ‘ a time of crisis, ‘McCaul added.
Axios reported Sunday that Cruz invited his roommate to Princeton and Harvard Law School, David Panton, on the trip.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Texas on Saturday and sent federal funds to the state, where extreme winter storms left millions of people without power or running water last week.
According to the website PowerOutage.us, power was restored in many homes on Monday morning. But millions of Texans were without drinking water over the weekend due to burst pipes and other problems, reports The Associated Press.
According to reports, dozens of people in Texas died in the circumstances. But experts fear the actual death toll is even higher, reports The Texas Tribune.
Cruz returned to Texas less than 24 hours after arriving in Mexico on Wednesday, saying the trip was a mistake. This past weekend, he was mocked after posting photos of himself loading water bottles into a car while trying to repair the political damage of his vacation.
Another Republican politician from Texas was forced to defend his actions over the weekend after flying out of the state in a private jet. State Representative Gary Gates told KPRC, an NBC affiliate in Houston, that he fled with his family to Florida because part of his home was flooded and because he was worried about his family.
“Due to my wife’s illness she’s had for several weeks and my daughter was flooded with a disability with her area in the house, I was just trying to find easier housing for them, and I was trying to find a to find a place where I could continue to work and do the things I had to do, ”Gates said.