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Ted Cruz violated a basic rule of politics when he jetted off to Cancun while his home state of Texas was besieged by a winter storm. Then he made it worse.
THE FIRST RULE OF politics is, don't abandon your constituents in a crisis – and in particular, don't tend to your own personal comfort while people who decide whether you keep your job are suffering.
The second? If you're in a public relations ditch, don't keep digging.
Sen. Ted Cruz violated those rules – and more – this week when he jetted off to the Mexican resort city of Cancun to escape the freezing temperatures and ensuing power and water crises in his home state of Texas.
That was bad enough – when Cruz boarded the plane for sunny Mexico, more than 500,000 Texans were without power and millions more were under boil-water orders or had no water at all – but the Lone Star State Republican made a series of unforced errors.
First, he claimed he was trying "be a good dad" by escorting his daughters to warmer and more comfortable climes, suggesting he was always going to be headed right back. Then, after news organizations reported he had originally been scheduled to fly back Saturday and had hastily rebooked a flight back Thursday morning amid public outrage, he owned up to that.
Then, Cruz apologized – sort of, in the Washington way Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark describe in their book, "Dog Whistles, Walk-Backs & Washington Handshakes," wherein politicians don't actually apologize for their behavior but rather for how it was received by aggrieved people.
"It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight I wouldn't have done it," Cruz told reporters after returning to Houston, not saying: "I made a mistake."
Asked by local station KTRK-TV about the public outrage – including chants of "resign!" after he landed – Cruz said, "In hindsight, if I understood how it would be perceived, the reaction people would have, obviously I wouldn't have done it." Cruz in those remarks does not actually acknowledge he did anything wrong, only that he was hurt by how it was "perceived" by people.
But wait – there's more: Group texts, including from Cruz's wife, Heidi, surfaced that had Heidi Cruz urging friends and neighbors to join them in Cancun, since it was "FREEZING" in Houston.
That text apparently did not include the family dog, photographed looking plaintively out the front door of Cruz's house while he was away. The dog's name?
Snowflake.
"I can't wait for the movie. Sounds like a combination of 'Home Alone' and 'Bachelor Party.' Maybe Zach Galifianakis will play Flyin' Ted," says New York City public relations specialist Bill Cunningham, founder of Big Apple PR firm Cunningham Strategies and a former spokesman for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The reaction to the Cruz saga was swift and merciless.
"Texans' anger with Ted Cruz right now could power an entire electrical grid," The Houston Chronicle editorialized, calling on the state's junior senator to resign. "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."
Leaving behind the dog – which, according to Washington, D.C., lore is the only true friend a politician could have – provoked a separate outcry, as people tweeted with the hashtag "#DogsAgainstTedCruz."
"Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog," tweeted Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
Added Scott Dworkin, co-founder and executive director of the Democratic Coalition: "I'll never forget the fact Ted Cruz abandoned his dog Snowflake in a house that was too cold for him to stay in." Snowflake was reportedly being cared for, and not abandoned.
Nate McMurray, a Buffalo, New York-area Democrat who was narrowly defeated in his bid to unseat then-GOP Rep. Chris Collins in 2018, threw up his rhetorical hands.
"I say this as a man who lost to a convicted felon," McMurray tweeted. "@tedcruzis the most unlikable politician in America."
Other Democrats underscored the difference in Cruz's behavior and theirs: Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who narrowly lost in his effort to unseat Cruz in 2018, led an effort to call hundreds of thousands of senior citizens in Texas to check on their safety – and was not shy about letting people know about it.
Rep, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York had raised $2 million to help Texans by Friday afternoon and was on her way to join fellow Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia in Houston to hand out supplies.
President Joe Biden said Friday he planned to go to Texas but wanted to make sure it was at a time when it would not be disruptive. That reflects a classic White House conundrum, in which constituents want their president to show up with sympathy and federal aid but don't so much enjoy the logistical disruptions of having the commander in chief in town.
Biden traveled to Michigan on Friday to tour a Pfizer facility and to deliver remarks on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
"We're not spending any time, energy or breath analyzing Sen Cruz's whereabouts or his group chat," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One as they prepared to leave Joint Base Andrews.
That respects yet another Washington political rule: When your political foe is running into traffic, look the other way.