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Ted Cruz flew to Cancun as frozen Texas battles deadly power outages

19 February 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) flew to Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday with plans to "stay through the weekend," as hundreds of thousands of his constituents went without power and heat in Texas after a winter storm caused deadly outages.

The latest: Addressing reporters outside his home Thursday, Cruz admitted his original intentions, but claimed he started having second thoughts "almost the moment I sat down on the plane."

What he's saying: Travel plans were made after his daughters wanted to go somewhere "not so cold" amid the outages, Cruz said.

  • "As parents, we have a responsibility to take care of our family ... but I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously of fighting for the state of Texas," he added.
  • "Frankly, leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn't feel right and so I ... flew back on the first available flight I could take."
  • He said he understood why people were upset, but suggested the "venom and vitriol" of Twitter and the media fed into it.
  • It's "unfortunate" his trip became a "distraction" from Texans' suffering, he added.
  • Earlier on Thursday, Cruz said in statement that in "wanting to be a good dad," he accompanied his daughters on the flight to Mexico for a vacation they wanted to take.

The big picture: While Cruz has no direct control over the power situation in Texas as a federal lawmaker, outraged critics argued the senator should be stateside trying to find solutions for his constituents.

  • More than 30 people have died as a result of the extreme weather sweeping across the South this week.
  • The Texas Democratic Party has called on Cruz to resign. Cruz's former Senate opponent Beto O'Rourke is coordinating volunteer efforts to check in on senior citizens in Texas.

Between the lines: The CDC has advised that individuals "should avoid all travel to Mexico" due to the coronavirus pandemic and that "[a]ll air passengers coming to the United States, including U.S. citizens, are required to have a negative COVID-19 test" before boarding a U.S.-bound flight.

Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they've visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn't much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing. pic.twitter.com/6nPiVWtdxe

— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 18, 2021

Editor's note: This story has been updated with Cruz's comments to reporters on Thursday.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.