Ted Cruz tries to turn his 2021 Cancun disaster into an awkward punchline: 'Humor is always a good thing'
- Sen. Ted Cruz keeps joking about how he fled to Cancun during deadly storms in Texas in 2021.
- Not everyone's taking it super well.
Nearly three years ago, Sen. Ted Cruz committed severe political malpractice.
"Look, it was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn't have done it," the Texas Republican told a local TV station after he was caught fleeing his home state for the sunny Mexican resort city of Cancún during a deadly winter storm.
That freezing February 2021 storm, which knocked out much of Texas's power grid, led to the deaths of nearly 250 people, according to state's health department.
Yet for some reason, Cruz keeps choosing to remind people about the incident.
In a tweet earlier this month about an impending wave of freezing temperatures, Cruz added a gif of Saturday Night Live actor Aidy Bryant portraying the Texas senator.
"If it gets too damn cold, join me in Cancun!" wrote Cruz.
It wasn't the first time he'd referenced the Cancún incident unprompted.
"Guess what I found!" Cruz wrote last May, including a photo of him gesturing at the sign for a restaurant called "Cancún Grill" in Midland, Texas, affixing "#Cancun" to the tweet.
The Texas senator — an avid Twitter user — has referenced the incident several other times in the last three years, often when needling Democratic politicians like President Joe Biden or California Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking vacations.
Asked by Business Insider on Tuesday why he made his most recent joke about Cancún, the Texas senator paused for a few seconds before giving a brief, declarative response.
"Humor is always a good thing," said Cruz as he quickly strode away.
Indeed, Cruz's frequent mentions of Cancún seem to be an attempt to use humor to neutralize potential criticism: It's harder to wield an opponent's misstep or weakness against them if they openly acknowledge it, and even make light of it.
Yet not everyone seems to agree with Cruz on this one.
"It's too soon, Ted. It will probably always be too soon," wrote the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle over the weekend. "Who laughs about a deadly storm that left millions without power and totaled billions in financial losses?"
And Rep. Colin Allred, the likely Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas has used the Cancún incident to his advantage as he seeks to take on Cruz later this year.
"Texas deserves a leader who will step up for our state, not abandon us in a crisis," Allred wrote in a tweet earlier this month, noting that Cruz "jetted off to Cancun" during the 2021 freeze.