Texas Senator Ted Cruz hasn't really known what to do with himself since he got caught
sneaking off to Cancun , Mexico for what looked like a last minute break, while his state
was in the midst of a deadly, winter storm that left millions without power, heat, or
water.
After he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar with his impromptu vacation, Cruz admitted
the trip was a mistake. But he also conceded that it took a backlash on social media for
him to make the decision to cut his trip short and return to Texas. Cruz told reporters,
"As it became a bigger and bigger firestorm, it became all the more compelling that I come
back. I didn't want all the screaming and yelling about this trip to distract even one
moment from the real issues Texans care about, which is keeping all of our families safe."
"I just love that after he abandoned Texas, he came back in a Texas flag mask like nothing
happened."
Still, the Texas senator tried to explain that he did, in fact, have his reasons. His
story about taking his daughters to Mexico as a chaperone on their plane ride before
returning stateside himself barely held any water to begin with, and it didn't take long
before the story was further discredited by a series of leaked text messages from a group
chat to which his wife, Heidi Cruz, belonged.
The contents of the group chat made their way into the pages of The New York Times and
onto social media for everyone to see. Heidi texts, quote, "Our house is FREEZING." Several
responses later, she says,
"Anyone can or want to leave for the week? We may go to Cancun there is a direct flight
at 445pm and hotels w capacity. Seriously. Covid test to come back which we will take
there."
The plan was to leave on Wednesday, and to return on Saturday. There was no mention of
the Cruz's white poodle Snowflake, who was pictured alone in the Cruz home; the photo
went viral on social media.
The act of making a private exchange public appears to have annoyed Heidi to no end, or
so Cruz says, because whoever it was had violated the unspoken confidentiality agreement that
binds everyone when they join a group chat. And it was a sentiment shared by some who
viewed the chats on social media.
One Twitter user wrote,
"Poor decision by Cruz to leave. BUT this appears to be private text msg [thread] that
has been hacked, which .@Twitter .@TwitterSupport has a policy against (they tell us). If not
hacked, then leaked by 'friends'. Friends like that, who needs enemies?"
Another person said:
"I'm more concerned about a 'friend' who is happy to leak texts to the media but not tell
their 'friend' this is a really bad idea, and suggest they make a different choice.
Whoever leaked these texts isn't a nice person."
Another person saw the leaked texts as a cautionary tale:
"Underreported here... TWO of TEN (20%) of the 'friends' on Heidi Cruz's text chain spoke
to the New York Times about these messages... Be nice to your friends folks..."
That wasn't the only thing that made Cruz mad. He appears to be nursing a grudge because,
as he told the Ruthless podcast, he lives in a bipartisan neighborhood, and knew people
who had put up signs supporting his rival Beto O'Rourke , which he thought "was a little
rude." But Cruz claimed to have taken the high road because he didn't celebrate in their
front yards after he won.
But the senator from Texas may have more than just a bad travel decision to think about,
because a Political Action Group with links to the controversial senator have paid out
hundreds of thousands of dollars to a firm that had bought plenty of copies of Cruz's
book. Now questions are being raised about whether he used the November 2020 political
campaigns to make money. If anything comes out of those investigations, Cruz might get
so busy dealing with this that there won't be any trips out of the country at all for
the foreseeable future.
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