Photos circulating on Twitter late Wednesday purport to show Texas Senator Ted Cruz on a flight to Cancun, Mexico, during the state‘s historic disaster.
The images show a man with a striking similarity to Cruz in an airport ano on a plane. Cruz’s office didn‘t respond to a request for comment but this story will be updated if they do. Other reporters said they had reached out as well but not heard back.
Some Twitter sleuths claimed they matched a mask, glasses, a ring, tennis shoes and headphones to past social media posts. One photo appears to show Cruz’s wife – who has appeared on national television – at his side.
One sleuth cited clues from a photo that puts Cruz inside the Houston International Airport near the terminal for a United flight to Cancun at 4:10 p.m.
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
Less than an hour later, UA1020 departed for Cancun and landed at 7:52 p.m., online flight records show.
Still, others thought the photos might be taken out of context or from a past trip. Indeed, there isn’t a smoking gun and Cruz hasn’t yet commented.
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Those sharing the photos include a state lawmaker from Cruz‘s hometown of Houston.
“Guess which US Senator from Texas flew to Cancun while the state was freezing to death and having to boil water,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston.
Keith Edwards, a Democratic operative who worked on Georgia Senator Jon Ossof’s campaign, tweeted that people who were on the flight with Cruz had confirmed to him the photos veracity in direct messages.
Nothing on Cruz’s most recent Twitter timeline mentions travel. He has shared resources for the storm, including information on a warming center in San Antonio and a request for residents of South Texas to donate blood if they’re able.
The reports of Cruz’s alleged vacation spread quickly on social media, catapulted by Texans‘ frozen frustration. That after a failure of the state’s electric grid forced millions in the state to go days without sustained power in sub-freezing temperatures. If true, the trip would add even more insult to injury for a battered state dealing with a historic disaster.
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