Sen. Ted Cruz was exploring ancient Greek ruins with his family when deadly flash flooding was ravaging central Texas.
The Texas Republican was touring the Parthenon with his wife Heidi just over 24 hours after the Guadeloupe River overflowed its banks early on the morning of July 4, a witness told The Daily Beast.
“The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4,” Cruz’s office told The Post.
“Within hours, he spoke by phone with Governor [Greg] Abbott, Lt. Governor [Dan] 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, 54, flew back from “Athens on Sunday morning and was back in Texas that night,” his office added.
The unidentified witness told The Daily Beast that Cruz “was with his family and a lone security guard” at the world-famous site. “As he walked past us, I simply said, ‘20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?’
“He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”
Cruz spokesperson Macarena Martinez blasted the Daily Beast story as “A bulls— piece published by a bulls— rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas. The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible.
At least 100 people have been killed by the flooding.
By early Monday, Cruz had arrived at Kerrville, one of the worst-hit municipalities, where he observed some of the damage and participated in a press conference.
“Everyone would agree, in hindsight, if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate,” Cruz told reporters.
“Particularly those in the most vulnerable areas – the young children in the cabins closest to the water, we would remove them and get them to higher ground if we could go back and do it again.”
The Texas Republican also revealed that his daughter Catherine had recently attended summer camp not far from Camp Mystic, where at least 27 campers and counselors were killed by the rising waters.
“We picked up our youngest daughter last week from camp five miles away,” he revealed.
“I will tell you I’ve been speaking to moms and dads, number one, of kids who are still missing and the agony of not knowing where your daughter is—there’s nothing like that.”
Critics said Cruz’s European vacation evoked memories of his trip to Cancun during the February 2021 power crisis in Texas following three severe winter storms — which left an estimated 4.5 million homes and businesses in the dark.
Cruz later admitted that trip was “obviously a mistake.”
The other senator from Texas, Republican John Cornyn, participated in a roundtable with Abbott and other local officials on Saturday.
