Texas Senator Ted Cruz was overseas again when devastating floods struck his home state, but this time he promptly got on a flight home, his team claimed.
Cruz was in Greece visiting the Parthenon in the capital city of Athens this weekend as disaster hit in Texas, reminiscent of when he went to Cancun, Mexico, in 2021 during one of the worst winter storms in the state’s recent history.
At least 95 people, including children, have died after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to swell in central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend.
In a statement, Cruz’s team confirmed the senator was in the middle of his family vacation and said he got back “as fast as humanly possible.”
“The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4. Within hours, he spoke by phone with Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, Texas Emergency Management Director Nim Kidd, and President Trump, working to ensure that the maximum federal assets were available for search and rescue,” Cruz’s office said in a statement to The Independent.
“He and his team worked closely with local officials and with families of missing girls throughout that time. He promptly booked a flight back home. Given the time difference, he left Athens on Sunday morning and was back in Texas that night. And he was in Kerrville on the ground early Monday morning,” the statement added.
Cruz’s vacation was first reported by The Daily Beast after an anonymous eyewitness told the outlet they spotted him at the Parthenon around 6 p.m. local time/11 a.m. ET Saturday.
“20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?” the eyewitness claimed they asked the senator, who “sort of grunted and walked on.”
On July 4, Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp, announced that more than 20 girls were missing. They have since confirmed that 27 girls and staff members were killed in the disaster.
According to The Daily Beast, Cruz arrived in Greece on July 3. On July 2, the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced it was activating state emergency response “in anticipation of increased threats of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas,” the warning said.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, acting as governor for Gregg Abbott who was out of state, called a press conference that night to warn of the flooding when Cruz was touching down in Athens.
The next day, on July 4, Patrick called a second press conference.
On July 5, Cruz and his wife were seen at the Parthenon before returning to the U.S. the next day, the Daily Beast reported.
Cruz’s team did not specifically respond to questions The Independent put to them about the senator’s timeline. The Texas Republican’s communications director Macarena Martinez accused the outlet of having “no regard for the tragedy in Texas” in a post on X.
“A bull**** piece published by a bull**** rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas,” Martinez said in a post on X Monday.
“The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible. I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter,” she wrote.
Cruz faced a wave of backlash in 2021 after he went to Cancun during a harsh winter storm, which left thousands of Texans without heat or water. The scandal earned him the nickname of “Cancun Cruz.”
He later apologized and admitted it was “obviously a mistake.” “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
