As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) continues to do damage control over his ill-timed trip to Cancun during a once-in-a-lifetime disaster in Texas, text messages purporting to show his wife boasting about the trip to neighbors and friends beforehand have emerged.
Cruz has suggested he only went on the spontaneous getaway to appease his daughters, but messages from Heidi Cruz first reported by local news outlet Reform Austin paint a far different picture, one of a gleeful escape.
In texts confirmed by two people on the text message chain, Heidi Cruz invited neighbors along for the getaway from her “freezing” home.
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“Anyone can or want to leave for the week? We may go to Cancun,” she reportedly wrote early Wednesday, mentioning a “direct “flight” and “hotels w capacity.”
“Seriously. COVID test to come back which we will take there,” she continued.
With many Texans struggling to get water and forced to ration food as the disastrous deep freeze batters the supply chain, Heidi Cruz enticed neighbors with details about the planned trip, which included a pricey stay at The Ritz-Carlton in Cancun from Wednesday to Sunday at $309 per night.
She did at least appear somewhat mindful of those stuck behind: “We have gas stove so at least we can heat water little that there is happy to help anyone we can too.”
Neither Cruz nor his wife have yet commented on the messages specifically, but Cruz, after abandoning the trip early amid mounting calls for him to resign, offered the closest thing to an apology he could muster on Thursday night.
With protesters chanting “Resign!” in the background, the Texas senator admitted on camera to reporters that the trip was “obviously a mistake.” But he doubled down on his claims that he was just doing dad duty and had always planned to “work remotely.”
“It was not my intention for [the trip] to be understood as… somehow diminishing the suffering and hardship other Texans had experienced,” he said.
For some, Cruz’s latest remarks may be hard to believe after he issued a series of weaselly statements seeking to downplay the trip—initially saying he had only traveled for the night to escort his daughters, despite his abundant luggage, and that it was “his girls” who had pressed for the trip.
Indeed, the senator’s claim of a one-night trip fell apart Thursday, following reports the Texas Republican had rebooked his flight back to Houston on early that morning after initially being slated to stay until Saturday. And after his return on Thursday night, he dodged a question from a reporter on whether he’d come back early because he felt guilty or simply because he’d been caught.
