Sen. Ted Cruz fired back at critics with a snarky response after being slammed for leaving Texas on a work trip to California days before a disastrous winter storm threatened his state.
The Republican lawmaker said he returned home to the Lone Start State Friday after receiving flak this week when a photo of him aboard a United Airlines flight to California went viral — nearly five years after he faced calls to resign for flying his family to Mexico during a deadly winter storm.
“I’ve returned home from my work trip,” the 55-year-old Texas politician posted on X, with a photo of himself holding his hand up toward the sky.
“It’s 66 degrees & beautiful. A storm is expected tomorrow night. But I am reliably informed by Twitter that if I simply raise up my hand on Texas soil, the storm will turn around & sunshine, rainbows & unicorns will emerge. Let it be.”
Cruz was snapped Tuesday standing up out of his seat in a crowded aisle aboard a plane that was reportedly heading to Laguna Beach.
The photo ignited a firestorm on social media, with online hecklers quick to compare the flight to his infamous impromptu family vacation to Cancun in 2021 after deadly Winter Storm Uri devastated Texas.
He eventually cut the trip short and flew back to his Houston home — admitting to local outlets the family getaway was a “mistake.’
Cruz was also criticized for jet setting in Greece while horrific floods killed 136 people in Texas’ Hill Country last summer.
The senator’s office quickly responded to his latest viral photo, saying the trip had been planned before Winter Storm Fern was forecast.
“Senator Cruz is currently on pre-planned work travel that was scheduled weeks in advance,” a spokesperson for his office told KHOU.
“He will be back in Texas before the storm is projected to hit.”
The massive snow and ice storm impacting much of the country this weekend began battering Texas Friday afternoon, knocking power to thousands and coating roads with freezing rain, ice, and sleet as the dangerous system makes its way through the Midwest to the East Coast, according to NBC 5.
Forecasters warned the storm would be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event” from Texas to the Carolinas.
