Texas senator Ted Cruz’s cruel tweets about California power outages have come back to haunt him as more than 4 million people in his home state struggle without electricity.
The Republican lawmaker mocked California last summer when a heat wave caused major blackouts across the Golden State.
“California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity,” he tweeted last August.
“Biden/Harris/AOC want to make CA’s failed energy policy the standard nationwide. Hope you don’t like air conditioning!”
Now the Lone Star state has ground to a halt under winter storm Uri, which has seen wide scale blackouts caused by record-breaking freezing temperatures.
Mr Cruz was widely mocked for his past statement across social media.
“Hey @tedcruz, why can’t Texas perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity?” tweeted @andrewkimmel.
“Hey Ted! It was 5 below when I got up this morning, it’s 7 above and snowing like crazy now here in Wisconsin and everyone has working electricity! Tell us more about the paradise you call Texas,” tweeted Daniel Timm.
And Lee Crawford, tweeted: “Wait till he hears how his own state is doing with electricity...Glass houses and stones. Reality loves irony.”
The arctic air that poured into Texas caused an unprecedented demand for power as temperatures plummeted with the grid eventually overwhelmed.
At least 17 deaths have been linked to the storm, with many people turning to dangerous methods of heating their homes.
A woman and girl died from carbon monoxide poisoning and two people were hospitalised in Houston after a car was left running in a garage to heat a home, which was without power.
