Social media users were quick to criticize Texas Senator Ted Cruz this week after he was seen boarding a flight toward Southern California ahead of a potentially deadly winter storm in Texas – nodding to the Republican lawmaker’s 2021 incident in which he fled to Mexico during a historic winter storm.
Tuesday, an X user named Shea Jordan Smith posted a photo of Cruz boarding the flight toward “Laguna Beach” as much of the United States, including his state, braces for freezing temperatures, ice and snow.
Within days, the post garnered more than eight million views and thousands of comments, mostly mocking Cruz for once again traveling as his state prepared for an emergency. Many referenced Cruz’s 2021 Cancun scandal, where he and his family took a sunny vacation as millions battled deadly freezing temperatures that are unusual for Texas.
“You have to admire the consistency from @tedcruz,” liberal political commentator Tommy Vietor wrote. “When there’s a crisis in Texas, he springs out of town.”
“Here we go again…,” Democratic commentator Kaivan Shroff said.
A spokesperson for Cruz said the senator is on “pre-planned work travel that was scheduled weeks in advance” and said Cruz would be “back in Texas before the storm is projected to hit.”
Cruz’s spokesperson declined to provide further details about where he was going and when exactly he was expected to return. While the senator may have been headed to Laguna Beach, California – the area does not have its own airport.
The incoming winter storm is expected to hit Texas later this week. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for much of the state from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon. Officials have warned Texans to be prepared for disruptive weather that could knock out power or make roads impassable.
Although Cruz’s trip appears to be ill-timed with the incoming severe weather, it didn’t stop people from ridiculing the Republican lawmaker.
“Like clockwork,” The Lincoln Project, a political action committee that opposes Trump, wrote.
“People are mad at him but personally I think it’s nice to have our own early warning system for snow storms,” an X user who claims to be a lawyer from East Texas said. “Kind of like a Texas Groundhog.”
Jaime Harrison, the former Democratic Party chair, wrote: “Wintry mix in Texas… #CancunCruz is always on the first flight to a beach resort.”
Cruz has tried to make light of his 2021 Cancun blunder to no effect. He has apologized for the incident, calling it a “mistake” and saying, “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it.”
In addition to the 2021 Cancun trip, Cruz faced some criticism last year after devastating floods swept across Central Texas while he was on a family vacation in Greece. As soon as the tragedy occurred, Cruz “promptly booked a flight back home,” his office said at the time.
