Erin Scott/Reuters
- Sen. Ted Cruz said it was “awesome” that an airline was offering a discounted flight to Cancún.
- The tweet came three months after he faced immense backlash over his trip to Mexico while Texas endured freezing temperatures and power outages.
- Critics slammed Cruz over his tweet, accusing him of joking about the trip as Texas froze.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted Tuesday that it was “awesome” that airlines are offering discounted deals to Cancún, three months after he faced backlash over his trip to Mexico during the Texas winter storms.
The Texas senator was embroiled in a political firestorm in February as Texas residents endured freezing temperatures and widespread power outages. More than 150 people died during the frigid winter storms, with causes of death ranging from hypothermia to carbon monoxide poisoning.
A tweet by ABC13 Houston shared an article about low-cost airline Sun Country Airlines, reading: “Excited to travel again? This airline can hook you up with a cheap flight to sunny Cancún or even Las Vegas!”
Cruz reshared the tweet with the caption: “Awesome!”
Twitter users slammed Cruz in replies to the tweet, alluding to Cruz’s comment as a joke in light of the controversy spurred by his own trip to Cancún.
“The people of your state were in dire straits when you willfully abandoned them,” one Twitter user wrote. “The fact that you are joking about it confirms that you have no regrets.”
“Making jokes about how you abandoned your state leading to a child freezing to death does not make it ok,” another person replied.
In February, Cruz was lambasted after photos emerged of him at the airport heading to Cancún, and protestors gathered outside his home the following day. The trip was further corroborated by leaked text messages of his wife Heidi Cruz planning the Cancún trip with other families.
At the time, Democrats slammed the Republican senator for taking the trip, calling for him to resign.
“People in Texas are literally freezing to death and yet Ted Cruz went on vacation to Cancun,” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington tweeted. “I guess spending so much time denying climate change must leave him pretty exhausted.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex renewed her calls for Cruz’s resignation. She had originally demanded he step down over his response to the Capitol riots.
“If Sen. Cruz had resigned back in January after helping gin up a violent insurrection that killed several people, he could’ve taken his vacation in peace,” she tweeted at the time. “Texans should continue to demand his resignation.”
In a statement responding to the backlash, Cruz said his daughters ask to take the trip and that he only intended to fly down with them overnight and return back to Texas the next day.
A representative for Cruz did not immediately answer Insider’s request for comment and whether the tweet was in reference to his trip in February.
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