Like millions of his voters in Texas, Senator Ted Cruz had an icy house without electricity this week amid the state’s crisis. But unlike most, Mr. Cruz got out and fled Houston and took a flight with his family to Cancun on Wednesday afternoon for a break at a luxury resort.
Photos of mr. Cruz and his wife, Heidi, who was on board the flight, quickly came across social media, leaving both his political allies and opponents stunned during a tropical trip while a disaster unfolded at home. The setback only increased after Mr. Cruz, a Republican, issued a statement saying he flew to Mexico to be a good father and accompanied his daughters and their friends; he noted that he was flying back Thursday afternoon, although he did not disclose how long he originally planned to stay.
SMS messages received on Wednesday from me. Cruz sent to friends and neighbors in Houston revealed a quickly planned trip. Their house ‘froze’, as Mrs Cruz put it – and she suggested a getaway until Sunday. Mrs. Cruz invited others to go with them to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed “many times,” noting the room rate this week ($ 309 per night) and its good security. The text messages were provided to The New York Times and confirmed by a second person on the thread, who did not want to identify due to the privacy of the text.
For more than 12 hours after the photos left the airport, Cruz’s office declined to comment on where he was. Houston police confirmed that the senator’s office on Wednesday asked for their help for his airport trip, and eventually Mr. Cruz was spotted in Mexico on Thursday as he returned to the state he represents in the Senate.
Since the Cruises were gone, millions of Texans were still without electricity, many had no running water and the icy air that penetrated the state was so bad that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated to send supplies, including generators. Some in neighborhoods searched for discarded trees to burn for heat.
“What is happening in Texas is unacceptable,” he said. Cruz said a television team at the airport of Cancún. He was wearing a Texas state flag mask and a short-sleeved polo shirt in his jeans; the temperature in Cancún was higher than 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday, and in the 1930s in Houston.
Mr. Cruz’s critics quickly spread hashtags mocking his trip: #FlyinTed, a play about former President Donald J. Trump’s ridiculous nickname for Mr. Cruz during the 2016 primary race, and among them #FledCruz. Some Democratic groups tried to fund the episode, and the Democratic Party of State called on Mr. Cruz’s resignation renewed.
“It’s about as numb as any politician can get,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. Mr. Hinojosa said he was shocked but not surprised by Cruz’s international journey: “He’s a politician who has never cared much for anyone but himself.”
As mnr. Cruz was going to give the impression that he only wanted to stay a day, had his big suitcase and the group text messages that Mrs. Cruz sent, a longer itinerary planned that he cut his trip short. NBC reported separately that Cruz re-booked his return ticket on Thursday morning.
“With the school canceled this week, we asked girls to take a trip with friends,” Mr. Cruz said of his daughters, who are 10 and 12, in his statement Thursday. “Because I wanted to be a good father, I flew with them last night and flew back this afternoon.”
Untimely holidays and lavish outbursts have long plunged politicians into scandals and headaches: the international travels that the infamous former lobbyist Jack Abramoff arranged for members of Congress in the early 2000s; Chris Christie, then governor of New Jersey, is sitting on a state beach in 2017 after ordering such beaches to close due to a government disruption; and, more recently, the Gavin Newsom government of California ate without a mask during the pandemic in the high-end restaurant La French last year.
Mr. Cruz’s decision to leave his state in the midst of an emergency was a particularly confusing decision for an ambitious politician who has already elected president once and is widely seen wanting to run again in 2024 or later.
“It was clearly a mistake of judgment,” said Ray Sullivan, a Republican strategist in Austin who served as chief of staff to former Gov. Rick Perry. Although a senator could not personally repair the power grid, Mr. Sullivan said: “People expect their elected officials to be fully involved during a crisis.”
Mr. Cruz, 50, won nail-bitingly in 2018 against Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman, with less than 51 percent of the vote. In the race, Mr. Cruz aggressively highlighted his efforts during an emergency in the past, Hurricane Harvey. He cannot be re-elected until 2024.
While the city of Houston was gripped by the icy weather on Wednesday, a staff member Cruz’s staff contacted the Houston Police Department at George Bush Intercontinental Airport before his flight, according to Jodi Silva, a spokeswoman for the department.
Me. Silva said police monitored his movements before leaving. Officers was seen accompanying him with his Thursday return.
Mr. In his statement on Thursday, Cruz insisted that he and his staff were “in constant communication” with state and local leaders during his short trip to Cancun.
“It’s been a furious week for the Texans,” he said.
In his statement, Mr. Cruz noted that the private school his daughters visit in Houston was closed this week. But some other parents at the school were upset when they heard about his international trip due to the pandemic and school policies that discouraged such travel abroad.
Two parents provided a copy of the written school policy for students not to return to the classroom seven days after the international trip, or to take a Covid test three to five days after their return, which the Cruz would keep children out of school for the next week. (Separately, an assistant to Cruz said he took a virus test before returning on Thursday; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required a negative outcome.)
Then Mrs. Cruz early Wednesday on the group text group of neighbors trying to cope with the extreme conditions, she said the family stayed with friends to stay warm but quickly insisted on offering an invitation to get away.
“Anyone can or want to leave for the week?” she wrote. “Maybe we’m going to Cancun.” She teased a “direct flight” and a hotel capacity. Serious. Mrs Cruz immediately shared information for a Wednesday afternoon departure, a Sunday return trip and a luxury stay at the Ritz-Carlton by the Sea.
No one bit, but Mrs. Cruz offered a more practical offer. “We have a gas stove so we can at least heat little water so we can all help too,” she wrote.
The Times reported the contents of the messages with Mr. Cruz’s office in the Senate shared, but his assistants make no comment. Mrs. Cruz did not return a call for comment.
Mr. Cruz has long named members of both parties as a self-promoter since his arrival on Capitol Hill in 2013. Later that year, he became the leading actor in the drama that forced a government break due to the Affordable Care Act, and in 2016, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, famously joked during a speech: “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you.”
But if Mr. Cruz annoyed his colleagues, he just as quickly won the GOP Tea Party wing. He ran as an anti-establishment champion in the 2016 presidential by-election and ended up as the runner-up of Mr. Trump, with his colleagues’ contempt for honor.
Representative Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat representing Cruz’s Houston neighborhood in Congress, said Thursday that the state faces a “situation on the deck” and that its leaders need the federal response to the ground. help slim. .
Me. Fletcher herself was out of control until Wednesday and loaded her phone into her car to continue making calls to the House Speaker, FEMA and other agencies – too busy, she said, to reflect on Cruz’s decision. to leave the state “at this time.”
“Leadership matters,” she said.
Mr. Cruz was well aware of the possible crisis beforehand. In a radio interview on Monday, he said the state could see up to 100 deaths this week. “So do not dare,” he said. “Keep your family safe and just stay home and embrace your children.”
Mr. Cruz attacked a Democrat, Mayor Stephen Adler of Austin, in December for undertaking a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while telling voters to “stay home” during the pandemic.
“Hypocrites,” he said. Cruz wrote on Twitter. “Complete and utterly hypocritical.”