Twitter users quickly dogpiled on Senator Ted Cruz this week after he accused Kamala Harris of “running away” from a crisis.
“On the border crisis, Kamala invokes an old leadership style…” the Texas Republican tweeted on Wednesday. Below the caption was a GIF from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which King Arthur is seen fleeing from danger and shouting, “Run away! Run away!”
Mr Cruz also included a link to a CNN story with the headline, “Vice President Harris’ team tries to distance her from fraught situation at the border.”
The implication – that Ms Harris is “running” from the border crisis President Biden tapped her to manage – struck some as rich. Mr Cruz himself infamously fled Texas for Cancun, Mexico as his state was pummeled by a deadly winter storm.
Skeptical Twitter users responded to the senator’s Monty Python footage with footage… of Ted Cruz.
One person wordlessly posted the infamous clip of the senator, wearing a short-sleeve polo and a Texas flag mask, wheeling his suitcase along an airport floor.
Others made the comparison more explicit.
“I’m sorry, is Cancun Cruz trying to drag someone for ‘running away’ while being a leader? CANCUN CRUZ?!” one person tweeted. “Let’s remember what HE did when his leadership was needed.”
“Looks exactly like your leadership style during the Texas snowstorm,” someone else commented.
“During the Texas Winter Storm crisis, when the people of his state needed him to be a leader, Ted Cruz invoked a plane ticket to Cancun,” another wrote, mimicking the cadence of the senator’s tweet.
Mr Cruz left for his ill-fated vacation on 17 February, just as a freak cold snap sent Texas temperatures plunging and left millions of his constituents without power or heat. After a public outcry, the senator abruptly returned home the next day and blamed his daughters for the trip.
“With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends,” Mr Cruz said in a statement. “Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”
On Wednesday, Twitter did not appear to accept that excuse.
“Similar to your style when your state went dark,” another user commented on the Monty Python tweet. “Isn’t that what you did? Run away, run away, run away!
