Former Rep. Trey Gowdy chastised Sen. Ted Cruz for his decision to travel to Mexico with his family as Texas continues to struggle with freezing weather and deadly power outages.
Gowdy, who served as a congressman from South Carolina for nearly a decade, said the Texas Republican’s decision to leave the state right as it was facing a major crisis is “a big deal.”
“He never should’ve left. Leaders are the first to pick up a difficult task and the last to put it down. They don’t go to Cancun, and they don’t blame their daughters for it if they do,” Gowdy said of Cruz on Fox News.
Controversy erupted when Cruz was photographed boarding a flight to Cancun with his family late Wednesday. After more than 12 hours of silence, Cruz claimed that he only went down to Mexico to escort his children, although he did not mention the fact that a woman appearing to be his wife was also in the photos. The Texas Democratic Party called for his resignation over the trip.
“With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz said. “My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe.”
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The extreme winter weather has been blamed for nearly three dozen deaths across the southern United States, some due to carbon monoxide inhalation resulting from generator usage during widespread blackouts, which peaked in Texas on Monday. As of Thursday, more than 500,000 homes and businesses are struggling to get power.
