Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tried to attack the Biden administration’s handling of the US pullout from Afghanistan by declaring, “America doesn’t leave Americans behind” on Twitter. He was soon reminded of how, during a dangerous weather emergency in his state, he fled to Cancun.
Image of Ted Cruz via Flickr/Gage Skidmore is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit
Cruz retweeted a CNN video that the Republican National Committee had posted late Monday night. A reporter speaks about a Texas family that had “been going to the airport for two weeks” seeking to leave the country in the video.
Cruz tweeted in response to the footage, “This is horrifying. And wrong. America doesn’t leave Americans behind.”
This is horrifying. And wrong.
America doesn’t leave Americans behind.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 31, 2021
Social media users mocked the Texas senator for the remark, bringing up his trip to Cancun amid a big winter storm in Texas earlier this year that resulted in much of the state being without power in below-freezing temperatures. Two hundred and ten people died due to the dangerous weather conditions.
Cruz issued a statement following the outrage he received after being caught in an airport on his way to Cancun, explaining he was accompanying his children on a trip they were having with their friends.
Ted Cruz: “America doesn’t leave Americans behind!!”
Also Ted Cruz when a major snowstorm hits his state: *flees to Cancun pic.twitter.com/ym3NK9GxNT
— Ross Anthony (@Ross_Swim14) August 31, 2021
All of this came up again after Cruz’s tweet on Monday night, with the hashtag “Cancun” trending on Twitter.
“True, but also… remember Cancun? Texans do. #Hypocrisy,” RAICES Texas tweeted.
Image via Twitter
“Bold words from a man who left all the Americans in his state behind to vacation in Cancun,” tweeted Katie Porter.
Image via Twitter
“Unless it’s cold and your kids really want to get tan,” another Twitter user tweeted.
Writer Aimee Vanderpool responded with, “YOU LITERALLY LEFT YOUR ENTIRE STATE TO FREEZE IN A POWER OUTAGE SO YOU COULD GO TO A RITZ CARLTON IN MEXICO. AND THEN YOU LIED AND TRIED TO BLAME YOUR CHILDREN WHEN YOU GOT CAUGHT.”
Image via Twitter
It’s had been a rough week on social media for Cruz, who also falsely claimed that the Taliban had executed a person by hanging them from a helicopter.
Cruz came under fire last week for claiming that some participants in the Capitol riot should be exempt from prosecution.
Cruz stated that anyone who “assaulted a police officer” should be sentenced to “a long, long term in prison,” but he refused to prosecute those who entered the Capitol but did not damage anyone.
Capitol Police Officer being crushed by door during Jan 6 riot via YouTube…
“If, on the other hand, the Biden administration is targeting and persecuting people for exercising political speech that is nonviolent and simply expressing their peaceful support for a political party different from that in power, that is not the purpose of our criminal justice system,” he added.
More than 570 people have been arrested in connection with the attack, according to the Justice Department. Many of the accused have been charged with minor offenses such as unlawful picketing.
Those who rushed the Capitol on Jan. 6 weren’t merely expressing their “peaceful support for a political party,” even if they didn’t punch a cop. They believed lies about a rigged election and were convinced that as heirs to the American Revolution, they had to “stop the robbery.”
Image of Ted Cruz via Flickr/Gage skidmore is licensed with CC BY-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit
Republicans have played down the violence from the start: before the shattered glass had even been wiped off the Capitol floor, 147 members of the House and Senate (including Cruz) voted against recognizing the 2020 presidential election results – just what the rioters intended.
However, the party’s opposition to the insurgency’s political and legal implications appears to be growing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been blamed for the Capitol’s vulnerability by Republicans, as though she encouraged Trump fans to assault 140 police officers in order to make Trump seem bad.
Image of Nancy Pelosi via AFGE/Flickr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, please visit:
Some Republicans have criticized the treatment of defendants who were arrested on January 6 and are being held in the D.C. Jail (which is certainly not a good facility). Far-right A protest was held at the jail in July by Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Marjorie Taylor-Greene (Ga.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), and Louie Gohmert (Texas).
They did not, however, delve into the personal lives of the defendants who were imprisoned pending trial. The vast majority of them were recorded on film brutally assaulting police officers. Those stories aren’t politically expedient: it’s more successful to make sweeping statements about how Joe Biden’s government is mistreating Trump supporters than to get into the nitty-gritty facts.
Image of Joe Biden via Whote house Flickr/Public Domain
There’s no sign that suspected Capitol rioters are being treated any differently than other federal defendants. According to a May Washington Post investigation, 13 percent of Capitol suspects were held pretrial, compared to 75% of federal defendants overall (though Jan. 6 defendants are likelier than all federal defendants to have been charged with misdemeanors).
Members of the legislative branch accuse the executive branch of being too tough on Trump supporters, while members of the judiciary question if they are too mild.
Image of Ted Cruz via Flickr/Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, please visit:
Chief Judge Beryl Howell questioned why the government wasn’t being more proactive in the Jan. 6 cases earlier this week. Howell got Glenn Wes Lee Croy to say that he traveled to the Capitol to stop the certification of the electoral college vote, not only to demonstrate while taking a misdemeanor plea from him this week.
A former Trump campaign official is now attempting to organize a “#JusticeforJ6” protest outside the United States Capitol next month. The event was hosted by former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon as a way to raise awareness of the Biden administration’s “political prisoners.”
Image via White House Flickr
Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo. ), two Republicans who lead the GOP’s effort to overturn the 2020 election through legislation, said they were unaware of the event.
“Those who attacked police and broke the law must be prosecuted,” Hawley stated on the day of the riot, after giving his notorious salute to the rioters. He used the term “mob” to refer to those who accused him of assisting Trump in inciting the disturbance. He remained tight-lipped about any new developments in the criminal case this week.
Image of Donald Trump via Flickr/Michael Vadon is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit
“I stand by my original statement … about the folks who committed the crimes here,” Hawley told HuffPost. “I don’t know all the details of the folks who are ― who all is in prison, or not in prison, or awaiting trial or not awaiting trial, so I better not comment on that.”