GOP congressman from Texas slams Ted Cruz as it emerges he took his college roommate on Cancun trip

• Rep. Michael McCaul slammed Sen. Ted Cruz for going to Cancun, Mexico, during winter storms in Texas.
• "When a crisis hits my state, I'm there. I'm not going to go on some vacation," McCaul told CNN.
• Axios reported on Sunday that Cruz had invited his college roommate on the trip.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas criticized Sen. Ted Cruz for flying to Cancun, Mexico, last week as winter storms crippled Texas' energy infrastructure and knocked out power for millions of Texans.

McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that Cruz's decision to leave and hastily return as he faced backlash was wrong.

"Look, when a crisis hits my state, I'm there. I'm not going to go on some vacation," McCaul said.

"I know Mr. Cruz called it a mistake and he's owned up to that, but I think that was a big mistake and as for me, I was on the ground trying to help my people out and my constituents, and that's what we should be doing in a time of crisis," McCaul added.

Axios reported on Sunday that Cruz had invited his roommate at Princeton and Harvard Law School, David Panton, on the trip.

President Joe Biden on Saturday declared a major disaster in Texas and sent federal funds to the state, where extreme winter storms last week left millions of people without power or running water.

Power had been restored to many homes as of Monday morning, according to the website PowerOutage.us. But millions of Texans were without potable running water over the weekend because of burst pipes and other problems, The Associated Press reported.

Reports have said that dozens of people in Texas died in the conditions. But experts fear that the actual death toll is even higher, The Texas Tribune reported.

Cruz returned to Texas less than 24 hours after arriving in Mexico on Wednesday, saying the trip was a mistake. He was mocked over the weekend after posting photos of himself loading water bottles into a car as he sought to repair the political damage of his vacation.

Another Republican politician from Texas was forced to defend his actions over the weekend after he flew out of the state on a private jet. State Rep. Gary Gates told KPRC, an NBC affiliate in Houston, that he fled with his family to Florida because part of his home had flooded and because he was concerned about his family.

"Because of my wife's illness that she's had for a couple of weeks and my handicapped daughter with her area of the house being flooded, I was just trying to find some easier accommodations for them and I was trying to find a place where I could continue to work and do the things I needed to do," Gates said.