CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz flew into a storm of criticism on Thursday after leaving his home condition of Texas in the grip of a fatal deep freeze, for a loved ones holiday getaway jaunt to the Mexican vacation resort of Cancun he reported he took to be sure to his younger daughters.
“It was certainly a oversight. In hindsight, I would not have accomplished it,” the 50-12 months-previous Republican informed reporters as he returned to Houston.
Cruz stated he experienced planned to remain via the weekend, but had next thoughts “almost the minute I sat down on the plane.”
In textual content messages attained by American Bridge, a Democratic political group, Cruz’s spouse Heidi requested neighbors irrespective of whether they desired to accompany the family to Cancun.
“Anyone can or want to go away for the week?” she wrote, noting that rooms at the city’s Ritz Carlton charge “$309 as well as tax.”
With thousands and thousands of Texans grappling with the fallout from a ferocious wintertime storm, Cruz, seen as a presidential hopeful in 2024, confronted condemnation soon after pictures on social media showed him in an airport line, in a passenger lounge, aboard an airliner and leaving Cancun International Airport in Mexico.
Some critics slammed his opinions blaming his daughters, aged 10 and 12, for his conclusion to take a look at the resort, wherever the temperature was a balmy 79 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) on Thursday evening. The Texas Democratic Social gathering known as on him to resign.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, talking just before Cruz was spotted at Cancun airport, said tongue-in-cheek: “I don’t have any updates on the specific place of Senator Ted Cruz, nor does everyone at the White Residence.”
Hundreds of thousands of Texans remained paralyzed by power and water outages right after a winter season storm and freezing temperatures that hampered initiatives to restore comprehensive energy.
Some 2.7 million Texas households were without heat on Wednesday and leaders warned of a domino influence on infrastructure as the absence of electricity cut off drinking water materials, strained the means of hospitals to take care of COVID-19 people and isolated susceptible communities minimize off by frozen roads.
“We have to have to be below, we have to have to be in the battle, we will need to be serving to Texans,” Dallas County Decide Clay Jenkins told MSNBC when requested about Cruz.
Cruz, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, won re-election to the Senate in 2018 by eking out a victory about Democrat Beto O’Rourke by significantly less than 3 share points. He is not because of to operate again right until 2024.
In December, Cruz criticized Austin, Texas, mayor Stephen Adler on Twitter for having a excursion to Mexico in December when telling other individuals not to vacation in the course of the pandemic.
Reporting by Reuters in Cancun, Mexico, and Andy Sullivan, Eric Beech, David Morgan and Susan Heavey in Washington Enhancing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis