Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) gestures as he speaks to members of the media throughout the fifth day of the impeachment trial of former U.S. President Do
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) gestures as he speaks to members of the media throughout the fifth day of the impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump, on costs of inciting the lethal assault on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2021.
Erin Scott | Reuters
Is Sen. Ted Cruz now going to be referred to as “Flying Ted”?
Social media erupted early Thursday with a number of pictures purportedly displaying a masked Cruz boarding a aircraft in Houston after which flying to Cancun, Mexico a day earlier at the same time as hundreds of thousands of his fellow Texans froze due to traditionally low temperatures and widespread energy outages.
Hours after hundreds of posts on Twitter shared these pictures, different photos confirmed somebody with the Republican’s final identify and first preliminary of his authorized first identify — Rafael — standing by for a United Airways flight from Cancun again to Houston that’s scheduled to depart Thursday afternoon.
On the time, the temperature in Houston was simply 34 levels Fahrenheit. In Cancun, it was a balmy 84 levels.
NBC Information repeatedly reached out to Cruz’s workplace concerning the photos, however has obtained no response.
The Houston Police Division advised NBC Information that Cruz’s workers contacted the division on Wednesday afternoon to help Cruz in his arrival and actions by Houston Worldwide Airport, the place there was a scheduled flight at 4:44 p.m. native time to Cancun.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who misplaced an in depth Senate election to Cruz in 2018, blasted him throughout an interview Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Cruz “is vacationing in Cancun proper now when persons are actually freezing to dying within the state that he was elected to signify and serve,” stated O’Rourke, who for months in 2019 had marketing campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
Julian Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, who additionally served as secretary of the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement, tweeted:”In crises like these, members of Congress play a important function connecting their constituents to emergency companies and help.”
Cruz “must be on the cellphone with federal businesses, not on a visit to Mexico,” Castro wrote.
On Tuesday, Cruz had tweeted — in response to an article criticizing him for mocking California’s personal energy outages months in the past — “I received no protection. A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.”
In December, Cruz had criticized Democratic officers who didn’t comply with their very own coronavirus pandemic restrictions, together with Austin, Texas, Mayor Steve Adler, who himself flew to Mexico for his daughter’s marriage ceremony in November at the same time as he urged Austin residents to remain residence.
“Hypocrites. Full and utter hypocrites,” Cruz wrote in his December 2 tweet.
Former President Donald Trump, whereas operating towards Cruz within the 2016 Republican presidential nomination contests, recurrently derided him with the scornful nickname “Mendacity Ted.”
However Cruz later grew to become an ardent Trump supporter, and final month unsuccessfully tried to get Congress to reject the affirmation of Joe Biden’s Electoral School victories in a number of states.
That affirmation course of was interrupted Jan. 6 by the invasion of the Capitol complicated by hundreds of supporters of Trump. 5 individuals, together with a Capitol police workplace, died a results of that riot.