Sen. Ted Cruz wanted to show he’s devoted to helping Texans struggling due to a deep freeze that has led to power outages and burst pipes across the state. So the senator, who has been trying to swat away criticism after he took a jaunt to Cancún last week while his constituents suffered, posted photos of himself on Twitter carrying water to several cars. One photo even shows him shaking hands with a person. “#TexasStrong,” he wrote in the tweet.
The tweets came after several Democratic leaders made a point of demonstrating how they were helping Texas while Cruz went to Cancún. And many on social media weren’t buying it, characterizing Cruz’s photo-op as too little, too late and an obvious attempt to rehabilitate his image. “I’m glad someone in Ted Cruz’s Senate office finally instructed him on how to fake compassion, humanity, and creating the illusion that he cares about the people he was elected to serve,” Melissa Ryan, who has worked as a Democratic Party digital strategist, said. Some pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises everyone to self-quarantine for seven days after traveling.
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Cruz has acknowledged that the Cancún trip “was obviously a mistake” and said that “in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it.” Cruz said he was trying to be a “good dad” but realized it was a mistake and changed his return flight. At first the senator tried to say that he planned to only drop off his family but later acknowledged he changed his flight to return earlier than planned. United Airlines is looking into who leaked the data that revealed Cruz changed his return flight after all the backlash on social media. “It’s against United’s policies to share personal information about our customers and we are investigating this incident,” United Airlines said in a statement.
