When a harsh winter storm in Texas left thousands without heat or water in 2021, Senator Ted Cruz packed his bags and headed with his family to the warmer climes of Mexico. He was chided for his actions then.
And now, as he went on a Twitter attack on CNN, asking them to move elsewhere, he was reminded of that time he went abroad when things were tough in his home state.
On Tuesday, CNN published an article about a family that moved to Italy. The Dawkins family bought a property in Latronico in the southern region of Basilicata, for a just over $45,000 wanting to connect with Ms Nadine Dawkins’ Italian roots.
“After hearing my nonna’s stories, I always felt a connection to Italy,” she told CNN Travel.
And then George Floyd’s murder in 2020 was the final push the family needed to move to a neighborhood within a national park surrounded by hot springs.
“Basically, police brutality towards Black people, mass shootings from domestic terrorists, and just the overall hate in this country is why we are leaving the USA,” Ms Dawkins told CNN Travel.
When Mr Cruz saw the article on the social media platform now called X, he pounced on it asking the left leaning media organization to move.
“If @cnn hates America so much, they are welcome to move elsewhere…” Mr Cruz said on Twitter.
However, “Cancun Cruz” as many referred to him in the backlash that followed his decision to travel to Mexico, was soon reminded of the time he jumped ship and went abroad during the brutal winter storm.
“Says a man who flees his state for cancun anytime there’s a thunderstorm,” a Twitter user replied to Mr Cruz’s tweet.
While another user mocked Mr Cruz saying “Strong words for someone that left to Mexico during a state/national crisis.”
Following the backlash to his trip to Cancun, Mr Cruz booked an earlier return flight, calling his decision to leave the country “a mistake”.
“I was trying to be a dad, and all of us have made decisions — when you’ve got two girls who have been cold for two days and haven’t had heater power, and they’re saying ‘Hey, look we don’t have school why don’t we go, let’s get out of here.’ I think there are a lot of parents that would be like, ‘Look, if I can do this great.’ That’s what I wanted to do,” he told the TV station KTRK at the time.
“[But] really from the moment I sat on the plane, I began really second-guessing that decision, and saying ‘Look, I know why we’re doing this, but I’ve also got responsibilities, and it had been my intention to be able to work remotely, to be on the phone, to be on the internet, to be on Zoom, to be engaged, but I needed to be here and that’s why I came back,” Mr Cruz said.
