Houston Chronicle Editorial Board Torches Ted Cruz Over Cancun Trip

The Houston Chronicle editorial board called on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to resign over his Cancun debacle in a blistering editorial on Friday. The home state newspaper described Cruz’s vacation during a Texas weather crisis as “foolish, callous and sadly telling of his approach to the job over the past eight years.”

“Texans’ anger with Ted Cruz right now could power an entire electrical grid,” the board said of the senator’s getaway this week to Mexico with his family as Texans suffered during freezing weather, power outages and water shortages. Cruz returned to Texas Thursday amid growing fury.

The editorial acknowledged that the Texas crisis was not of Cruz’s making and that the job of a U.S. senator is not to “shovel the coal.”

“The crisis is the handiwork of state officials, not federal,” the editorial said, but “we expect leadership and perhaps a little solidarity from a man whose re-election campaign heavily rested on claims of his compassion and advocacy for suffering Texans after Hurricane Harvey.”

The editorial board only last month called for Cruz’s resignation for stoking the violent mob of pro-Donald Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Cruz’s escape to Mexico “hits a new low — even by the senator’s own standards,” it said.

“Take our advice, senator, and resign,” the editorial concluded. “Seems like you could use a break and we could, too, from an ineffective politician who, even in crisis, puts his personal itinerary before the needs of Texans.”