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Ted Cruz contradicted Sean Hannity on Thursday night time by admitting he deliberate to keep in Cancun ‘through the weekend’ even because the Fox News host tried to claim the Texas senator flew for a ‘round-trip quick drop-off home.’
Cruz appeared on Hannity’s nightly primetime Fox News present in an try to defuse the firestorm of criticism being aimed on the Republican senator after he was photographed taking a flight for a weekend trip to Mexico on Wednesday.
He landed again in Houston on Thursday afternoon and stated he ‘regrets’ flying to Cancun in the midst of the state’s power disaster for a trip – however insisted he was ‘simply attempting to be a dad’. Cruz was initially due to return to Texas on Saturday.
‘It was clearly a mistake and in hindsight I would not have performed it,’ he stated, talking on arrival at dwelling in Houston.
Ted Cruz contradicted Sean Hannity on Thursday night time by admitting he deliberate to keep in Cancun ‘through the weekend’ even because the Fox News host tried to claim the Texas senator flew for a ‘round-trip quick drop-off home’
Cruz is seen checking into his return flight dwelling to Texas at Cancun International Airport in Cancun, Mexico on Thursday. He informed Hannity that he initially deliberate to return on Saturday
The journey ignited outrage given that Cruz’s dwelling state, Texas, was hit with a huge winter storm and days of below-freezing temperatures that have left dozens lifeless and hundreds of thousands with out energy, warmth, or water.
Hannity supplied up a sympathetic rationalization for Cruz’s journey, saying that he knew the senator was taking the blackouts in Texas ‘seriously’ and was working ‘hand-in-hand’ with Governor Greg Abbott to handle the disaster.
The Fox News host advised that Cruz was merely being a good father by escorting his daughters to the Mexican trip spot.
‘You went and you took your daughters to Cancun and you came back,’ Hannity stated.
‘I think you can be a father and be the senator of Texas all at the same time and make a round-trip quick drop-off trip and come home.’
Cruz nodded in settlement and stated: ‘Well, Sean, that’s proper.’
The senator agreed with Hannity’s statements that he had been monitoring the inclement climate circumstances earlier than they brought about the key outages in Texas.
‘This week has been hell for the state of Texas,’ Cruz informed Hannity. ‘It has been two storms on top of each other.’
Cruz stated that he and Texas’ different senator, John Cornyn, urged President Biden to declare Texas a federal catastrophe space.
He added that he and his spouse, Heidi, additionally misplaced energy and warmth of their Houston space dwelling.
Eventually, Cruz talked about his weekend journey to Cancun, successfully contradicting Hannity’s claim that the senator was making a quick round-trip.
Cruz stated: ‘So last night I flew down with [my daughters] to the beach and then I flew back this afternoon.
‘I had initially planned to stay through the weekend.
‘But as I was heading down there, you know, I started to have second thoughts almost immediately because the crisis here in Texas, you need to be here on the ground.
‘As much as you can do by phone and Zoom, it’s not the identical as being right here.’
He stated they’d begged to go away their Houston dwelling, telling Hannity on Thursday night time: ‘My women stated college’s been cancelled, can we take a journey and go someplace heat.
‘And Heidi and I, as mother and father, we stated OK, certain.’
On Thursday night time, Cruz doubled down on the excuse, telling ABC 13 throughout an interview at his Houston dwelling: ‘They stated, ‘Look, lets take a journey. Lets go along with a few of our associates and lets get out of right here and lets go someplace heat.
‘And Heidi and I stated … lets go.’
Asked instantly what he was considering, Cruz replied: ‘You query what I used to be considering, and … I used to be attempting to handle my household.
‘I used to be attempting to handle my youngsters. It’s unlucky, the fireplace storm that got here from it. It was not my intention. In saying sure to my daughters to by some means diminish all of the Texans that had been going by actual hardship.’
It was later reported that Heidi Cruz texted associates again dwelling in Texas from her Mexican seashore resort – urging them to comply with their lead and escape the ‘FREEZING’ climate in a journey motivated by escaping the chilly relatively than appease their traumatized daughters.
The New York Times first reported the textual content messages, citing a individual within the group and the unique sender, who confirmed their authenticity.
‘Anyone can or need to go away for the week? she requested her associates, in textual content messages obtained by American Bridge.
‘We could go to Cancun there’s a direct flight at 445pm and motels w capability.’
She then despatched spherical the small print of their flights to associates, confirming they had been leaving on United flight 1020 on Wednesday, and returning on Sunday at 4:45pm, touchdown in Houston at 6:15pm.
‘Ritz Carlton $309 plus tax,’ she stated.
She requested their associates: ‘Are you guys heat sufficient? We have a fire! Let us know. Our home is FREEZING tho… we could not stand it anymore.’
Their daughters, 10 and 12, had been by no means referenced within the partial change.
Protesters at Houston airport held out indicators as he landed on Thursday that learn: ’24 lifeless’. Others gathered outdoors his dwelling to present their anger at his jaunt.
They yelled: ‘Resign!’ as he spoke to native media outdoors his Colonial Revival dwelling.
He additionally claimed that the ladies requested him ‘yesterday’ if they might go away, and he and Heidi ‘agreed’. Within hours they had been all on the aircraft.
Temperatures plummeted to as little as -2F in Texas this week and snow and ice has blanketed a lot of the state. It has been 85 F and sunny in Cancun all week in contrast.
Ted Cruz, talking at dwelling in Texas on Thursday afternoon, admitted he made a mistake in flying to Cancun amid the storms
The Ritz Carlton in Cancun the place the Cruzes are staying, paying $309 a night time on the luxurious ocean-front resort
Cruz was slammed for each the journey and for seeming to blame it on his youngsters as soon as individuals began criticizing him for it.
Before he launched his assertion, sources informed Fox and The New York Times that the journey was pre-planned.
He was additionally carrying a giant carry-on which advised he deliberate to keep for longer than only one night time.
He later admitted he meant to keep ‘all through the weekend’.
Heidi Cruz’s texts stated she deliberate on returning to Houston on Sunday night, touchdown again within the Texan metropolis at 6pm after a 4 night time break on the luxurious Mexican seashore resort.
Before flying on Wednesday, Cruz requested a police escort by Houston airport, earlier than his flight to Cancun at round 4pm.
He was pictured on the United Airlines lounge, on the gate and on the aircraft earlier than take-off.
He was additionally on the standby checklist for an improve to enterprise class however did not get it.
His spouse Heidi’s identify wasn’t on the checklist for an improve.
The household was planning on staying in a resort they’ve visited earlier than, sources stated, although it is unclear which precisely.
Ted Cruz was seen on the aircraft flying dwelling from Cancun to Houston after his one-night journey
Cruz, in footage obtained by CNN, is seen descending an escalator on arrival at Houston airport, after his Cancun journey
Cruz was guarded by a minimum of two law enforcement officials (pictured) as he arrived dwelling to Texas following his journey
Last 12 months, they stayed on the Nizuc Resort & Spa in Cancun the place rooms are $480-a-night.
Cruz was due to return on Saturday, however as criticism of the journey exploded on Thursday morning, with many livid Texans demanding to know why he hadn’t stayed behind to assist in the disaster, he modified his plans.
He was on the checklist for a enterprise class improve on one of many afternoon flights out of Cancun on Thursday afternoon.
To re-enter the US from a overseas nation, all passengers should first take a look at destructive for COVID-19 by legislation.
They’re then suggested by the CDC to receive a destructive COVID take a look at once more, three to 5 days after they return, and quarantine for a full seven days after they return. Texas has no quarantine legal guidelines for getting into from one other nation or state.
According to ABC, his workplace contacted the Houston Police Department workers on the airport and ‘requested help’ on Wednesday earlier than his outbound flight.
‘HPD officers monitored his actions by the terminal,’ a spokesman for the drive stated.
The scenario in Texas is so dangerous that individuals are being informed to boil water earlier than consuming to cut back any potential contaminants due to a failure in water stress and crops.
Many cannot as a result of they do not have the facility to do it.
A protester, Mary Kay Hoffman, waited for Ted Cruz at Houston airport with a signal reminding him of the dying toll from storms
Protesters waited for Cruz outdoors his dwelling on Thursday afternoon as he arrived dwelling, lower than 24 hours after leaving
Cruz launched assertion on Thursday claiming he was simply escorting his spouse and daughters to Texas, that the journey was final minute and that they’d additionally misplaced energy. United sources stated he modified his flight at 6am on Thursday amid a swell of criticism
Cruz on Monday stated that his dwelling hadn’t misplaced energy, and that he and his spouse had welcomed of their kids’s associates who weren’t as fortunate.
‘Thankfully, my dwelling, we did not lose energy.
‘So proper now we have a bunch of the neighborhood youngsters throughout enjoying with our women, as a result of their mother and father misplaced energy and our home was fortunate.
‘So we have youngsters working up and down the steps proper now,’ he informed radio host Joe Paglialuro on Monday.
He went on: ‘If you may keep dwelling, do not exit on the roads, do not threat the ice… Don’t threat it.
‘Keep your loved ones protected, and simply keep dwelling and hug your youngsters.’
On prime of concern over Cruz’s journey, he was additionally mocked and in contrast to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who closed the entire state’s public seashores in 2017 throughout a authorities shutdown over a finances standoff, then took his household to the seashore.
People have deserted their frozen properties in Texas to search heat in shelters throughout the state.
On Thursday morning, the Mayor of Galveston stated the ‘human struggling’ he was witnessing was ‘very regarding’ and that the scenario was worse than any hurricane the state has skilled as a result of it is affecting the entire state and never simply the coast.
Cruz was proven on the checklist of passengers ready for an improve from coach to enterprise on Wednesday night time, below his given identify Rafael Edward Cruz.
He was inundated with criticism from individuals who referred to as him ‘morally bankrupt’.
An unnamed Republican supply confirmed to FOX News that it was Cruz on the airport.
‘The photographs converse for themselves,’ they stated.
He had earlier been compelled to admit he had ‘no protection’ after an August 2020 tweet mocking energy outages in California resurfaced.
Cruz tweeted Wednesday: ‘I received no protection. A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good. Stay protected!’
He had stated: ‘California is now unable to carry out even primary features of civilization, like having dependable electrical energy.
‘Biden/Harris/AOC need to make CA’s failed power coverage the usual nationwide. Hope you do not like air-con!’
After photographs of Cruz on the airport surfaced on-line Sawyer Hackett, senior advisor and communications for Mayor of San Antonio Julian Castro tweeted: ‘It seems in the midst of the worst power disaster within the historical past of Texas, @tedcruz is on his manner to Cancun together with his household.’
Beto O’Rourke was amongst those that criticized him.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz speaks to the media on the Cancun International Airport earlier than boarding his aircraft again to the U.S., in Cancun, Mexico February 18, 2021. He was carrying a Texas masks and spoke briefly to Telemundo, a native station, amid uproar over his deliberate trip through the worst power disaster Texas has ever seen
The inside of the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, Mexico, the place the Texas Senator spent one night time earlier than returning to his state amid widespread outrage
‘Cruz appears to imagine there is not a lot for him to do in Texas for the hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans who stay with out electrical energy/water and are actually freezing,’ he tweeted on Wednesday night time.
Hackett later referred to as for Cruz to ‘resign or be expelled instantly’.
Twitter consumer Elsa Ramon posted: ‘My 73-yo dad lives in Austin and is sleeping in full winter tenting gear.
He sits in his working truck with the heater on through the day for heat, @tedcruz.
‘Enjoy Cancun, you morally bankrupt piece of s***.’
