Senator Ted Cruz is under fire for vacationing in Greece while his home state of Texas was hit by one of its most devastating floods in over a century. Flash flood emergencies struck on the 4th of July. Up to 20 inches of rain descended in just a few hours and rose more than 25 feet.
In Kerr County at least 75 people died, including 27 campers and counselors at private Christian girls camp, Camp Mystic. Dozens more remain missing.
He and his wife visited the Parthenon on July 5 at around 6 p.m. local time—some 24 hours after the Guadalupe River surge began. One witness recalls shouting at them: “20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?”
- He was inflight when the storm hit. It was devastating because the flooding was unexpected. Cruz can’t reasonably be criticized for taking this vacation.
- It’s a story because in 2021, when Texas was hit with a hundred year snowstorm during which the state’s power grid buckled and many residents were without power for several days (and 246 people died), Cruz left and took his family to Cancun.
Re: the Ted Cruz/Cancun thing, this is the photo that unlocks the whole thing. He's in a United terminal. In the top left you can that it's 4:10 pm (or 4ish PM at least). To the left of that, you can see that he's near gate E11, with its destination being Ft. Lauderdale. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/hUuUqSNBze
— Nesler (@thatnesler) February 18, 2021
He claimed to have just been escorting his daughters there, intending to return right away, but an overstuffed carry-on bag and a leaked travel itinerary from United belied that explanation.
NEW: The Daily Beast reports Ted Cruz was seen vacationing in Athens, Greece on Saturday, one day after Camp Mystic announced campers had gone missing in the devastating Texas floodwaters pic.twitter.com/pU2UhAfAt7
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) July 7, 2025
Cruz landed in Athens July 3, just as Texas authorities activated emergency protocols. The Senator says he remained “on the phone” with Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, as well as President Trump. He did cut his trip short and return home Sunday evening, appearing in Kerrville on Monday morning, and appearing on Fox & Friends.
Governor Abbott was also traveling when flood warnings went up, but it’s fleeing the state for warmer climes in 2021 that makes this a story. He’ll weather this storm (!) despite the image of Cruz at the Parthenon – he was re-elected last fall despite becoming a meme three years earlier, and is only just beginning his third six-year term.
That’s not really the reason. He’s under fire for his ignorant, oppressive, repressive policies which set his constituents back from advancement. He’s giving in to the stupidest and most evil forces from his constituency while rejecting the modern viewpoints and ideologies that would give Texas a chance to even compete with coastal socioeconomic hotspots.
All Republicans suck.
New Yorkers haven’t forgotten his vote against Hurricane Sandy aide.
Disasters should not be partisan. All people should rise up to help those in need. And ideally prepare for and prevent such horrific outcomes in the future. Let’s actually invest in our country and its people.
Oh, and have fun in Greece y’all. It’s still better than Turkey…
Ugh, gonna need an ‘aide’ to stop autocorrect when I meant ‘aid.’
Seriously, those girls at the camp by the river. So sad. Should’ve known.
Welp, at least Houston will get the space shuttle for $85 million, per BBB.
“Disasters should not be partisan. All people should rise up to help those in need. And ideally prepare for and prevent such horrific outcomes in the future. Let’s actually invest in our country and its people.”
no better words have been spoken
this is not the time for this non-sense but our elected officials on both sides don’t know when to put a cork in it
lol, he sure does have great luck missing major weather events back home.
Definitely NOT ON PURPOSE, mind you. He’d never do that, ole Teddy Cruz the Canadian Wonder.
Stupid, provincial American idiot. Arrogant too.
“Cancun” Ted???? I thought it was “Lyin’ Ted”.
Natural disasters are really the purview of the state, not the US senator. If there is a bill about disaster aid, that is different, but “Lyin’ Ted” should just go on vacation as planned and leave the rescue to the state of Texas and Governor.
@Tim Dunn — Like many of us here, I like to travel, for work, for fun, for family, for all sorts of reasons. I doubt the Senator knew this was going to happen and literally fled the country. Now, should he return sooner if possible; maybe. Then again, if you lose a loved one in a tragedy like this, do you really want a politician to console you; probably not. The first responders are the ones who need support; and the community at-large to clean up, rebuild where appropriate, etc. It’s not even a Texas problem; it’s a human issue, and a global issue. We’re gonna keep seeing more things like this, perhaps increasingly so, and we best prepare for next time, not forget the hard lessons learned. There are agencies and professionals who study these incidents like the NTSB does for air accidents. The rules are written in blood, lest we forget.
Lying Ted.. Tucker did a great job exposing his neocon, more pro-israel than pro-America views.
Jon Oliver does have a running ‘bit’ on his show about Ted; it’s like poetry. See http://www.idonotlikethatmantedcruz.com
Flying Ted Cruz lol
1990
this has been a reminder of the power of intense storms in mountainous areas – just like what happened in E. TN and NC last year. The hills are beautiful but they become deadly when rain falls like this. Hopefully we learn how to better predict and evacuate.
and remember that the mayor of LA knew there were high winds and fire possibilities when she left for Africa.
To your earlier point, it is beyond childish to engage in mudslinging esp. in situations like this.
It’s not like there aren’t a million other opportunities that ARE justifiable
@derek you might want to brush upon how all this works.
1. State has disaster and needs out-of-state resources.
2. Senators support governor in clearing hurdles to said resources being mustered.
You can believe all “the states can handle it” dribble all you want, but it is the job of the federal government to keeps its citizens safe and protected. I mean, that is the argument being used to muster federal agencies to investigate political enemies, toss people in cages and tax the F out of Americans through more tariffs.
But, hey, I’m just a guy watching what I see around me.
@Parker
You may want to brush up on your understanding of the various roles of the federal branches.
No, two Senators from any state do not clear hurdles for funding for any State. They have no power whatsoever allocated to them like that in the Constitution aside from allocation of funds and oversight of the executive branches that use those funds.
Like any other senators, they allocate money for the Executive to use in emergencies like these and, if necessary, they can sponsor funding bills that allocate more funding.
I don’t particularly care for Senator Cruz, but it’s a bunch of hogwash the way people keep treating him like he’s in either the state or federal executive branch with power to do more than show up and be in the way. He is not and is nothing more than someone that needs extra security if he was in the Hill Country right now.
Texas has always had a lot of weather events. The river that flooded has done it before and killed multiple people in an event before. Nobody seems to pay much attention until it happens again. Despite the weather, the population of Texas continues to go up. People seem to like that state. The failure of the infrastructure during the cold weather a few years ago was surprising. Cruz won his election fairly easily.
@MaxPower they very much can facilitate and grease skids. While they have no official role, we all know they can speed thing up when they want to and can slow thing down when they want to.
I’m not saying Cruz should or should not have come back sooner. I’m just saying that he should stay because there’s nothing he’s responsible to do is not entirely correct. At least if I were a senator I would see that as part of my responsibilities to my constituents.
“While they have no official role, we all know they can speed thing up when they want to and can slow thing down when they want to.”
No. we don’t all know that.
You’re basically saying the relationship with Governor Abbott and President Trump or Secretary Noem is failing and a Senator with no power except persuasion should come back to do something to grease the wheels when there’s no evidence it’s needed. Has Senator Cornyn suddenly lost all power? Which wheels has he been greasing as an example?
And no. They can’t speed up or slow down anything when nominations/confirmations are already done and when the funding already exists.
Senators have power, but no real power in this instance beyond allocation and persuasion, especially in an example like this where it’s a Republican state, governor, and President working together already. Perhaps in the Houston example, the one senator from Houston could’ve had a calming effect? But there wasn’t much else he’s going to do that can’t be done via phone. It’s not as though he’s going to go stand outside DHS with a hat of money.
What have Senators Padilla or Schiff done to grease the wheels for California wildfire relief?
It’s a fun way to critique a senator no one really likes much, like Senator Cruz, but it doesn’t change that you’re talking about a power that either 1. Does not exist 2. Entirely unneeded in this example or 3. Never does anything aside from tying up phone lines for those actually trying to get real work done.
Having a gaggle (used informally to describe a disorderly and noisy group of people) of politicians show up is political theater. A few that can make differences are what is needed. The rest just add filler for the entertainment (news) and actually get in the way.
I’m no fan of Cancun Cruz. He’s a vile human being and a stunningly bad lawmaker. Nevertheless he was already on his way when this happened, unlike when he fled to Cancun while a huge portion of his constituency froze, so he didn’t just turn and run away this time.
“ Cruz can’t reasonably be criticized for taking this vacation”
And yet here we are talking about it
For perspective, Senator Jon Cornyn was in Austin the next morning with the governor and other state emergency officials. He met with first responders and offered support to some of the victims.
Cruz is a walking excuse generator.
Aren’t all senators and congressmen, regardless of political party, entitled to a vacation? Does he or any other member of Congress have an ouija board to foretell a natural disaster? NO…not Cruz, Schumer, AOC, Graham, Kennedy, Winecoff, NONE OF THEM. Jeeze. This is a non-event and I stoop to answer it. My bad!
Another dumb and needless political post on a “travel” blog. Apparently politics triggers an increase in clicks because more blogs are going that pandering, clickbait-ing route.
Such a shame. One of the reasons I loved travel blogs was it was an escape from the deranged partisan political media world we’re subjected to everywhere else in media.
But another blog goes down the drain of airing their petty political politics, for the sake of a few more clicks.
Thanks. Tuning out now…
Oh absolutely! If only Cruz had been standing heroically on a rooftop, arms outstretched, commanding the storm to back off like some kind of Texas Thor. And forget about phones, satellites, or this little thing called the internet… clearly, disaster relief only works if he’s physically present, maybe scribbling notes with a wax pen on a waterproof clipboard like it’s a FEMA-themed episode of Little House on the Prairie. Because yeah, that’s the gold standard for any 2025 crisis management: boots on the ground, rotary dial in hand, saving the day one soggy handshake at a time. Makes perfect sense. There’s just no way Ted could’ve possibly grasped from anywhere else on Earth that 120 billion gallons of rain and a 26-foot river swell in 45 minutes and dozens of fatalities might just qualify as, oh I don’t know, a significant natural disaster. I mean, unless someone sent him a telegram or carved it into a stone tablet sent by sloop across the Atlantic, how could he have possibly known? /s
Gary Leff, how could Sen. Cruz have stopped the flood? The river rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. BTW, 2025 LA Fire. The day before Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass left for Ghana, her aides received an email from the city’s Emergency Management Department warning of a “high confidence in damaging winds and elevated fire conditions occurring next week.”. L.A. Fires Death Toll Rises to 30. The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, destroyed more than 16,000 homes and other structures. The fires also resulted in significant economic losses, with estimates exceeding $30 billion.
That’s not the role of a US senator. You just want politicians that grandstand and play pretend, distracting those doing the actual work, I guess.
How absurd. Was he supposed to know that a flood would devastate Texas? Besides, disaster relief is the responsibility of the president and the governor. I suspect these are simply Ted Cruz haters jumping on the bandwagon to criticize him for taking a vacation with his family.
“And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?”
What next? Will he be in trouble for being at Disneyland during a random tornado? Stupid.
I was visiting Austin when the 2021 storm hit. I thought it silly he was criticized for taking a planned vacation. What was he going to do to make things better? Nothing as a US senator he couldn’t do from anywhere. Similarly, there is nothing he could do here. BUT, back in 2021 I read about how Cruz had criticized a opponent over the same thing: not being there when being there accomplishes nothing but symbolism. So, what goes around….
@Tim Dunn — Yup, the mayor Bass equivalence is apt. Yet, when one of their own does something, say, ‘un-perfect,’ the left joins the right in criticizing them, so much so that we’ve lost decent Senators like Al Franken, over practically ‘nothing,’ while #45/47 is literally in videos with Epstein, yet, ‘nothing to see’ there. There is a double-standard, for sure. Anyway, I agree, this is not the thing that takes down Senator Cruz. It should be the people of Texas voting for better representatives. I just doubt that’ll happen anytime soon. Again, focus should really be on helping those people directly affected by this horror, and identifying areas in our country and the world where this is likely to happen next. After the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, countries that were unprepared then, soon after developed warning systems that will save lives next time (see Sri Lanka). Even conservatives should agree that at a minimum our government is there to protect us from harms like this.
The real question no one is asking is: How did Ted get from Texas (or DC) to Athens? Did he take a nonstop, which airline, class of service, etc. These are the deets VFTW should be hungry for.
Like, if it was from Texas, c’mon, Ted, you’d better support your local airline, headquartered in Dallas, amirite? AA’s got 773s with Flagship First, too, so you can feel superior to even those mere mortals in Business class, but, unfortunately, no nonstops from DFW, shucks. AA does fly nonstop PHL-ATH, but Ted would have to take the Acela to Philly, sorry, I mean, a black car service. He could try out the famed new AA Flagship lounge there! Operated by 787 though, so no First. Sad.
Fine, maybe he’s thinking, ‘welp, United may be headquartered in Chicago, a place I’m sworn to loathe, but… they’ve got a big presence in Houston…’ Ok, so, maybe he’s a Polaris guy. But, darn, no nonstops from IAH, shoot again. But, if he was routing from DC, United does have IAD-ATH. That’s where I’d guess he flew. But, if he wanted a better ‘Polaris’ lounge, he might have gone further up to EWR for UA’s nonstop EWR-ATH.
Or if he’s a real traitor to our country, he’d’ve taken Emirates, EWR-ATH, First, 773, and flown like a king! Think, if the tax payers are covering it, I’d say that’s definitely the most luxurious option. Like, why not ‘splurge’ (while your constituents ‘submerge’!).
R. Lopaka nails it. Karen DumBass is an idiot. Hard to believe anyone could be worse than “wet sand, dry sand” Garcetti, and then DumBass becomes mayor. Similar to the save that Biden gave Jimmy Carter, making him not Jimmy the worst US President in modern history. Flame away.
I’d say it sucks for his constituents, but he was re-elected after the Cancun incident, so this is what they voted for.
@Michael — ‘Happy customers!’ *drowning noises*
Gary, how about an article about LA Mayor Bass being in Ghana during, arguably, a larger disaster? And she knew there were going to be very significant wind storms.
At least roast both sides of the aisle – or are you that partisan on this kind of issue?
An absolutely asinine post and equally idiotic negative comments from idiots. What do you expect any Senator do……just sit at home at wait for something like this to happen. He was in Kerrville within 48 hours of this tragedy unfolding. Speaking for all of those of us living in the disaster zone, we are more than pleased with how he, the President, the state and local officials reacted. Maybe you need to start a political blog if you are thinking you need to get clicks be going out of your zone with crap like this!!
@Coffee Please @Dave — Exactly. I agree, both Bass and Cruz didn’t need to be present, but if folks need a scapegoat, why not pick those in-power, both sides. Political piñatas!
Recall, Bass was in Ghana from January 7-8, 2025, while in Ghana, Bass attended a U.S. Embassy cocktail party on the day the Palisades fire began. She returned to Los Angeles on January 8th. Bass later admitted that her trip was a mistake in light of the wildfires, stating she wouldn’t have gone if she had been fully informed of the situation. If only she had literally been in Los Angeles to stop the wind! Burn her, she’s a witch! /s
For VFTW, it would have been more appropriate for us to discuss the associated travel plans and methods of any and all public officials, especially if in their ‘official’ capacity (as I tried above). Like, did they fly private or commercial, which airlines, class of service, etc. Delta flies nonstop JFK-ACC on their a339, and United flies nonstop IAD-ACC on their 788. Or, did she take a foreign carrier, connect in Europe/Middle East. Are politicians ‘traitors’ if they fly foreign carriers!? *gasp*
@TW — Are you saying you don’t wanna see Cruz in little white booties like don’t-say-gay DeSantis? I’d be so freakin’ cute. C’mon, think of the photos. We could get him out there with a bucket. Aww.
*It’d (aw, heck, I’d get out there with him, if it’d help, which it wouldn’t help much, but still…)
Ted Cruz was on national news this morning from the flood site in Texas. Sounds like to me that he came back as quick as he could.
Let him that has not sinned throw the first stone! How the hades did he know there was going to be a flash flood to wipe out over 100 people! What the hades could he or anyone else have done about it. Blame the devil for the flood and for turning you against your fellow man!
@1990
Ron DeSantis is an extremely popular Governor in Florida. So many examples of horrible Demo Governor’s out there. Newsom and Hochul leading the charge.
Not only that but just before he left on his trip Cruz inserted language into the Republicans’ “big beautiful” billionaires relief bill, prior to its signing by Donald Trump on Friday, that eliminated a $150m fund to “accelerate advances and improvements in research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, assessments, and dissemination of information to the public” around weather forecasting. A further $50m in Noaa grants to study climate-related impacts on oceans, weather systems and coastal ecosystems was also removed. Great timing. Insanity.
@Coffee Please — Actually, most states like their own governors, at the moment, at least.
While it’s totally fine to ‘root for your team,’ the latest empirical analysis shows Vermont’s Republican (Repo?) Governor Phil Scott is the most popular governor, respectively; meanwhile, Iowa’s Republic Governor, Kim Reynolds, is the only one ‘underwater’ (too soon?) with voters.
The polls show the top 10 most popular governors are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Yet, these things go in cycles. So, maybe Desantis, Newsom, and Hochul will keep getting elected, or not. One things for sure, the rich will keep getting richer, amirite?
@Leroy — One more time, wonder what routing he took. According to the Texas Tribune, his spokesperson also declined to say when Cruz boarded his return flight or arrived in Texas, specifying only that he left Greece “early Sunday” Central time and landed in San Antonio “late Sunday.” If the Senator sought out lie-flat both legs, he may have flown Turkish, ATH-IST-IAH, for instance, which would be a way to insult the Greeks, too! Bah!
Remember, never let an opportunity like this go to waste; blame your political opponents, perceived enemies, and scapegoats, even when objectively absurd. Like, come down that escalator, and claim the flood was caused by Mexicans, ‘some, I assume, good people.’
1990 – how about moving your cesspool remarks to a blog on MSNBC.
@1990:
For those who don’t know about it:
“Texas Republicans in Congress once stood nearly united against a bill to send billions of dollars in aid to Northeastern states recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Sen. Ted Cruz even ripped the legislation as “a Christmas tree” with billions of dollars in extraneous goodies.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/28/texas-hurricane-harvey-hypocrisy-cruz-242098
“The real question no one is asking is: How did Ted get from Texas (or DC) to Athens? Did he take a nonstop, which airline, class of service, etc. These are the deets VFTW should be hungry for.”
Mr 1990 has it right. Missing very important details, how was his in-flight food and how does it compare to first class of yesteryear?
Even, tangentially related such as, what did he pay for a last minute ticket or use miles or did the airline soak him, did he boot someone out of first class to get positive space, was a bereavement fare available, did he get the best and fastest routing, did he consider flying private, is this a good opportunity for JSX, why don’t they run hourly return flights so he couldn’t waste his time touring the Parthenon, etc
Short of him returning to empty a bucket or building a sand bag wall, the complaining is just grandstanding and piling on.
@Brad Whitford — Yes, I realize, some, if not most, of that was in-jest, but I think it is most on-topic for VFTW. Those last-minute tickets are outrageous (in price) usually. Then again, if demand going ‘west’ from Europe is down, perhaps, it was a ‘deal’ instead. While some prefer to just muckrake here, I still enjoy the travel industry and genuinely find those details interesting.
@Jacobin777 — Yup, haven’t forgotten. Wish we’d just help those in-need, and ideally, prevent the harms before they happen. Probably not going to get better anytime soon. This is a reactive bunch.
@TW — No thank, but since we’re talkin’ here, what was ‘cesspool’ in-particular to you?