Sen. Ted Cruz.Photo: Jonathan Newton-Pool/Getty
Sen.Ted Cruzis poking fun (or at least trying to) at hisill-fated trip to Cancún, Mexico, last year — joking in a recent social media post about rising flight costs as he took a jab at inflation under PresidentJoe Biden.
Some commenters, however, wondered about Cruz’s comic timing considering his state is again facing a winter storm similar to the one that hit when he caught a flight to Mexico last year.
In a Wednesday tweet on his personal account, the 51-year-old lawmaker wrote that “inflation is out of control,” adding that the cost of gas, food and lumber were all up — “and tickets to Cancun are up 32%!”
The tweet is a reference to the Republican’s trip to Cancún in February 2021 — which came as millions in his state remained without power and water due to a winter storm that damaged the power grid.
As some social media users pointed out, Cruz’s new post also comes at a time when a new winter storm is bearing down on Texas,again threatening the state’s power grid.
Cruz’s 2021 Cancún trip — which also went against travel guidelines during theCOVID-19pandemic — prompted widespread blowback. Cruz had just days earlier urged Texans to “just stay home and hug your kids” amid the crisis.
According to theTimes, Cruz’s wife texted friends and neighbors asking if they wanted to join the family on a quick trip to Cancún to get out of the “FREEZING” house.
“Anyone can or want to leave for the week?” Cruz’s wife wrote, according to theTimes. “We may go to Cancún,” she wrote, later adding, “seriously.”
No one on the text thread opted to join, theTimesreported.
“Whether the decision to go was tone-deaf — look, it was obviously a mistake,“Cruz said afterward, once he arrived hometo find protesters outside his house. “In hindsight, I wouldn’t’ve done it.”
“I started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane because on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. That’s something Texans have been doing across the state,” Cruz saidthen.
“But I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously for the state of Texas and frankly, leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn’t feel right,” he said, “and so I changed my return flight and flew back on the first available flight I could take.”
source: people.com
