The backlash against
Texas Senator Ted Cruz continues
despite appearing in a goofy photo
op to make it look like he actually
cares about his own constituents
when in reality he doesn't.
He got caught leaving the state
during a brutal winter storm when
his own constituents were dealing
with rolling blackouts.
He went on this Cancun vacation,
got caught and hurried back home
and was greeted with all
the backlash, including a Mariachi
band that showed up outside of his
home over the weekend.
By the way,
this Mariachi band was paid for
by a GoFundMe page that was set up
by a Texan named Adam Jama.
The page also donated money to
the Texas Children's Hospital.
But this was what Senator Ted Cruz
was dealing with over the weekend.
Just a lot of fun.
[APPLAUSE] >> I gotta say I
forgot how much I miss going to
the Hollywood Bowl for
Mariachi concerts because they were
a lot of fun.
But anyway,
the GoFundMe page said this,
Senator Cruz, being an amazing dad,
dropped off his family in Cancun in
the middle of a major crisis and
came back to Texas to continue
serving his constituents.
We want to thank Senator Cruz for
his leadership and pay for
an amazing Mariachi
band to perform for him.
No one should go to Cancun and
not listen to Mariachi.
So, I know how you feel about
anyone showing up to anyone else's
house, or in front of someone's
house in order to protest or do any
of these types of stunts, Cenk.
But we gotta at least give the guy
some points for creativity here.
And I do feel bad for his
daughters, because Cruz is clearly
hiding behind his daughters,
using his daughters as a shield for
his own poor decision-making, and
I don't want them to deal with any
kind of harassment or be scared or
anything like that.
But it is pretty funny.
[LAUGH] I don't know.
What do you think?
>> Well, look,
yeah I hate to be a Debbie Downer,
but I just don't think you should
go to anybody's house, period.
But I guess if you're going to go,
Mariachi band is the best way to
go, and nobody's in the house.
Ted Cruz is doing photo ops on
Fox News And the only one left in
the house, of course, is Snowflake.
And he could use the attention
because, apparently, they did not
give Snowflake a safe space.
So, he's- >> Why do you say that.
>> Yeah, he's still in that
freezing house.
I don't know if Ted has bothered
to turn on the the heat, or
if it's on in his particular house.
Anyways, but when it comes to his
kids, I know there's a story about
Heather attending a private school
and the private school's worried
that they're going to come back and
not quarantine.
But it looks like, at the end
of the day, they're going to decide
to quarantine as they should,
is something that applies to
all the kids.
And although I don't know why they
can't do online learning.
>> Virtual learnin, yeah,
I don't know, maybe the school
doesn't offer virtual learning when
they're in session, like they're
actually meeting in-person.
So why would they have virtual
classes available?
I don't know.
But this fancy private school does
have rules for
students who have traveled, at all,
during this pandemic, and
that makes a lot of sense.
They tied their own rules
to the guidelines that have been
put out by the CDC.
But, apparently,
parents were really furious about
everything that had transpired.
Cruz's family's travel became so
hot that administrators of the St.
John's School Parents Facebook page
closed down comments on Friday on
a post that referred to this recent
communication from the school
regarding advisories including CDC
requirements for
international travel.
So, just to tell you how long
they're expecting students to
quarantine if they have traveled.
They must quarantine for 7 to 10
days upon their return, and they
won't be able to learn online while
in isolation, probably, because
they don't offer online classes or
online learning during this time.
Under CDC guidance,
any international traveler who
returns to the United States must
quarantine or isolate for
7 to 10 days after returning
to in-person instruction.
And by the way, Cenk,
that makes sense.
There's nothing controversial about
what their guidelines are.
They're trying to keep
their students safe.
For me, what really stood out with
this story was just how much
disdain parents have for
Senator Cruz, specifically?
Oftentimes when you read quotes
like this in a story, they
are anonymous individuals, they
spoke on condition of anonymity.
But no, these parents are like,
I'll tell you who I am, first and
last name.
So, I want to give you a few
examples.
Lara Hollingsworth is one of these
parents who says, at the end of
the day, he's taking this heat for
him for using his children as
an excuse for taking a vacation.
And that's a mistake.
From a parent's standpoint,
all I'm asking is the school follow
the CDC guidelines, and
I need to say I have no reason to
believe they won't.
And they're going to follow
the guidelines, which is great.
She continues to say,
you've got someone out here saying,
quote, I did this to be a good dad.
No one's trying to dispute that.
The question is,
are you fully aware of
the consequences of what you did?
Does it make you a bad parent?
No. Does it make you a bad senator?
Maybe.
And then Cenk, one more quote from
a parent, Victoria Konar,
who says this, you start with
the fact that there are people
ticked off by those who think
they're the VIPs at the school who
don't want to be bothered to
follow the rules because it
infringes on their social life.
Then you've got people on top of
that, who don't like Ted Cruz.
[LAUGH] And then you have everyone
irritated because they're freezing
to death and can't bathe and
can't eat and he's going off to
the Ritz Carlton in Cancun and
lying about it.
>> Yeah, and can't bathe.
So, what I liked was the same thing
that you enjoyed there, which is
the universal disdain for Ted Cruz.
It's not just Progressives or
people in politics.
If you know Ted Cruz,
you dislike him even more.
In fact, one of his closest allies
these days is Lindsey Graham.
Back in 2016 he said, and
remember he's a Republican,
as well, from South Carolina.
He said, if you killed Ted Cruz on
the floor of the Senate, and
the trial was in the Senate,
nobody would convict you.
Well, it turns out,
actually, Republican Senators would
never convict another Republican,
no matter who they killed.
>> That's right. >> So, it turns
out Lindsey Graham had no idea,
I'm pretty sure that he was,
he voted to not convict either.
But in that case, it was Trump.
All right, look,
this story is largely symbolic.
It is the wealthy that create the
problems that run off to the Ritz
Carlton in Cancun and blame others.
So, that's the main reason why
people are focusing on Ted Cruz.
The Governors of Texas are far more
culpable.
The people who control
the energy decisions in Texas,
including the bizarrely
Texas Railroad Commission,
are far more responsible, and
they almost all take money from
those same energy companies to
the tune of millions of dollars.
So, if you want to fix the problem
and the corruption, don't let
private industry and private
individuals donate to politicians.
It's super obvious.
But last point here, in terms of
the irony, whereas the school has
an understandable policy, you go
outside the country, come back,
get a quarantine for a week, right?
But the reality is we're literally
the most dangerous nation on Earth,
when it comes to COVID.
We have the most cases and
the most deaths.
So, if anyone's going to
quarantine, it should be
the Mexicans quarantining
the Americans when we come in,
especially if you're Republicans.
Those are the most dangerous,
most potentially diseased people on
planet Earth.
because they think that
coronavirus, a lot of them don't
think it's real, including
Ted Cruz, who has minimized
coronavirus all throughout.
Who often don't wear masks.
I noticed he wears a mask in
Mexico, because he'd like to be
admitted into their country.
But here, he discourages people
from wearing masks, and doing any
of the right scientific things.
So, if I was Mexico, I'd be super
careful with letting a snake like
Ted Cruz into their country.
God knows what kind of diseases he
could spread there.
Unfortunately, it looks like we're
not sending our best to Mexico.