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- United Airlines is investigating the leak of Ted Cruz’s Cancun flight data.
- A company executive told Politico that whoever leaked it may be fired.
- Cruz drew sharp backlash for flying to Cancun as a devastating winter storm ravaged Texas.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
United Airlines is investigating the leak of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s flight information for a trip to Cancun, Mexico earlier this week, Politico reported.
“It’s against United’s policies to share personal information about our customers and we are investigating this incident,” a company executive told Politico in a statement, adding that whoever leaked the information may be fired.
Cruz drew intense backlash this week for traveling to Cancun with his family while Texas was in the middle of a devastating blackout caused by a winter storm. As millions in the state lost power and were forced to live in freezing conditions without heat, water, or electricity, the senator left for Cancun with his family on Wednesday.
In an initial statement on Thursday, Cruz said he went on the trip because he wanted “to be a good dad” and added that he intended to return to the US that afternoon.
“With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends,” he said. “Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”
An editor at Thrifty Traveler tweeted out what appeared to be Cruz’s flight information showing that the senator planned to travel back Thursday afternoon. But Skift’s Edward Russell tweeted that he spoke to a source at United who said Cruz had only made the return booking around 6 a.m. ET on Thursday and was originally scheduled to come back on Saturday. NBC’s Peter Alexander also confirmed the schedule change.
A series of text messages that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, appears to have sent out also indicated that the family was planning for a longer getaway.
“Anyone can or want to leave for the week?” said one of the texts, which were obtained by Insider and other news outlets. “We may go to Cancun there is a direct flight at 445pm and hotels w capacity. Seriously.”
Another text appeared to show Heidi Cruz saying in the group chat, “the Ritz Carlton has rooms at like $300 and we’ve been there many times great property god security etc no issues.”
It continued: “I’ll confirm on the covid we need to call the hotel this am to confirm that but you just test when you arrive as needs to be 3days before return.”
At least 58 people have died as a result of the storm in areas stretching from Texas to Ohio, according to The New York Times. More than 14 million Texans were told to boil their water as of Friday after the storm took water treatment facilities offline, and President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state on Saturday, unlocking millions of dollars in federal funding to 77 counties.
Cruz has drawn harsh criticism from Democrats for leaving the state amid the power outage. Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who challenged Cruz in the 2018 Senate midterm elections, ripped him for “vacationing in Cancun right now when people are literally freezing to death in the state that he was elected to represent and serve.”
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reiterated her demand that Cruz resign from office.
“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 said in a tweet. “Texans should continue to demand his resignation.”
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