Ted Cruz Escapes To Cancún As Texas Freezes Over [Photos]

UPDATE: 1:40 p.m. EST-- Ted Cruz has released a statement saying he was only escorting his daughters on a trip, and was in "constant communication" with Texas officials to help coordinate emergency response.

New Statement from @tedcruz: pic.twitter.com/0WMni5O9R1
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) February 18, 2021

Original story:

Senator Ted Cruz is in hot water after flying to Cancún as his constituents freeze in Texas’ deadly winter storms.

With many Texans still in blackouts and fighting widespread infrastructure failures, Cruz was spotted on a plane to a tropical resort with his family, The Dallas Morning News confirms. The images quickly took off on social media, with Cruz, his wife and various monickers like #Flyin’Ted trending on Twitter.

Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they've visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn't much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing. pic.twitter.com/6nPiVWtdxe
— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 18, 2021

Cruz’s office did not offer any statement on the trip, which some took as an admission. News outlets such as Fox, MSNBC and The Associated Press confirmed Cruz's presence on the flight to Mexico.

.@MSNBC: NBC News has reached out to Ted Cruz's office at least three times and there's been no response to the Cancun reporting.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 18, 2021

If Ted Cruz is in Texas, he'd have a pic of it and a hard retort up on social media by now. The silence we hear from Senator Cruz over this news cycle is the sound of a man waiting quietly in a Mexican airport lounge for the intercom to call for boarding on the next flight home. https://t.co/M2Gceq72Lm
— David Simon (@AoDespair) February 18, 2021

Reporter Jake Sherman noted that a Thursday flight from Cancún had been updated to include a “Cru., R.” Lois Romano confirmed that Cruz was on his way back and that he had only been planning on accompanying his family for one night. The Associated Press' source corroborated that timeline.

Online commentators were less than convinced by the narrative, including some that had predicted it beforehand.

Statement to come: Senator Cruz was always flying back to Texas today. He merely accompanied his family for the night.
— Lois Romano (@loisromano) February 18, 2021

Won't be surprised if Ted Cruz throws his wife and family under the bus and blames them for being forced to go to Cancun. I'm serious.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 18, 2021

Many compared Cruz’s vacation to the work being done by Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, who organized thousands of check-ins with vulnerable seniors to ensure their safety and help them get the resources they needed to weather the blackouts.

We made over 151,000 calls to senior citizens in Texas tonight. One of our vols talked to a man stranded at home w/out power in Killeen, hadn’t eaten in 2 days, got him a ride to a warming center and a hot meal. Help us reach more people, join us tomorrow: https://t.co/WOLn2HCrm1
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 18, 2021

Ted Cruz going to Cancun for vacation as his constituents freeze to death is peak Ted Cruz

Meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke is working as hard as anyone in America to help the people of Texas

One of these two men deserves to be an elected official, the other a cabana boy at Mar-a-Lago
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) February 18, 2021

No, Ted Cruz can't fix the state power grid. However, when a state has a catastrophic emergency, what a senator usually does is tour affected areas, make wellness checks on constituents, and use what they saw to advocate for federal help in Washington. Not hop a jet to Cancun. https://t.co/HFVALD9Ezj
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) February 18, 2021

Cruz isn’t the only Texas Republican struggling with image problems as the state buckles under a week of winter storms: Governor Greg Abbott was blasted for an interview with Fox in which he attacked the Green New Deal, falsely blaming Texas’ power problems on renewable energy.

Texas’ woes are expected to continue into the weekend, when temperatures are expected to finally recover.