Lyin’ Ted Cruises to Cancun, Sparking Outrage Across Texas

After telling Texans during a Monday radio interview from Washington to “just stay home,” Ted Cruz bolted for the balmy climes of Cancun, Mexico on Wednesday evening.

After photographs of Cruz boarding his flight out of George HW Bush International Airport went viral, Cruz changed his flight plans and returned to Texas on Thursday, 2/18.  Cruz’s staff initially issued a statement on his behalf, claiming it was a “long-planned trip,” but flight records and text messages show the trip came together at the last minute, and how Cruz was initially scheduled to return on Saturday, 2/20.

Earlier Thursday, aviation/airlines reporter Edward Russell tweeted how his sources at United Airlines confirmed Cruz changed his flight plans early Thursday morning, for an afternoon departure.

Further, Reform Austin has acquired text messages from a neighborhood group chat in River Oaks, the exclusive neighborhood where Cruz lives when he is in Houston.  In the messages, shared on the condition of anonymity to protect the identities of other chat members, Heidi Cruz, the wife of Ted Cruz, is apparently complaining to neighbors about the freezing cold temperatures in her home on Monday night, and asking them if they wanted to join them in their trip to sunny Cancun.

Heidi Cruz then shared the flight itinerary she planned to take (with a return Sunday flight), talked about the need for COVD-19 testing to return to the United States, and the idea of staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Cancun, where she claimed at the time of her text messages, rooms were going for $309 a night, plus taxes.

Senator Cruz subsequently issued a statement claiming he wanted to take his daughters to Mexico with their friends, and he always planned to return after one day, a claim met with skepticism across the media ecosystem, and contrary to reported facts.

As reported by the Associated Press, even Texas Republican chairman Allen West was less than supportive of Cruz’s decision making. “That’s something that he has to answer to his constituents about.  I’m here trying to take care of my family and look after my friends and others that are still without power,” West said. “That’s my focus.”

As some Texans grapple with a fourth day without power, and frigid temperatures continue to plague the state, Senator Ted Cruz has once again made national headlines for lying to Texans.  As the story continues to develop, we’ll have to find out if Ted Cruz will ever tell the truth.