Last updated on February 20th, 2021 at 04:15 am
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested earlier in the day that he only traveled to Cancun in the middle of a humanitarian crisis to escort his family, but text messages leaked to The New York Times quickly deflated that cover story.
In the texts, Cruz’s wife, Heidi, tried to recruit friends and neighbors to join them on a “luxurious” vacation south of the border at an oceanfront hotel. The messages show that the trip was planned to run from Wednesday to Sunday.
As MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin said after the phone communications leaked, “The text messages from Heidi Cruz don’t seem to match up with the explanation Ted Cruz gave in his earlier statement.”
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The text messages from Heidi Cruz don’t seem to match up with the explanation Ted Cruz gave in his earlier statement.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 18, 2021
More from The New York Times:
When Ms. Cruz wrote to the group text chain of neighbors trying to weather the extreme conditions early Wednesday, she said the family had been staying with friends to keep warm, but quickly pivoted to offering an invitation to get away.
“Anyone can or want to leave for the week?†she wrote. “We may go to Cancún.†She teased a “direct flight†and “hotels w capacity. Seriously.†Ms. Cruz promptly shared details for a Wednesday afternoon departure, a Sunday return trip and a luxurious stay at the oceanfront Ritz-Carlton in the meantime.
Ted Cruz now admits the trip was a mistake – because he got caught
Following the backlash Cruz has received since his attempted vacation, the Texas senator is finally coming clean and admitting he made a mistake.
Cruz now says he did, indeed, plan to stay in Mexico for the weekend, but decided to come back once he saw the “firestorm” he created.
“Leaving when so many people were hurting didn’t feel right and so I changed my flight to come back today,” Cruz said, according to Sara Cook of CBS News.
The truth, of course, is that Ted Cruz took a ritzy vacation to Cancun in the middle of a crisis in his state, then lied about it when the news of his trip came out.
Busted for lying about his travel plans, Cruz was forced to roll out another lie about how he regretted his trip once he set foot on the airplane and immediately wanted to return home.
What’s more likely is that Ted Cruz would be lounging on a beach in Cancun right now if he didn’t get caught feeing his state in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
