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United Airlines began investigating who leaked the flight information of Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz for his return trip from Cancun, Mexico to Texas earlier this week.
Cruz has been widely criticized for going to the Mexican beach, while millions of his constituents in his home state have found themselves without electricity, water or heating amid severe winter storms. A few Texans also died from weather causes during storms.
At around noon Thursday, Edward Russell, senior airline reporter at travel industry publication Skift, said on Twitter that a United Airlines source told him that “Senator Ted Cruz had booked his return flight. in Houston from Cancun this afternoon around 6 am today (Thursday). “
“[Cruz] was originally scheduled to return on Saturday, ”Russell added.
Speaking to a source at United Airlines, Senator Ted Cruz booked his return flight to Houston from Cancun this afternoon around 6 a.m. today (Thursday). He was originally scheduled to return on Saturday.https: //t.co/QV9xgibIQ9
– Edward Russell (@ByERussell) February 18, 2021
United Airlines said Newsweek Friday: “It is against United’s policy to share personal information about our customers and we are investigating this incident.”
Online commentators and politicians had already started to criticize Cruz on Wednesday evening when photos of Cruz and his wife Heidi Cruz appeared online at the airport. The photos showed Cruz and his wife at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston waiting to board their flight.
Cruz drew even more criticism Thursday after the senator tried to explain his trip.
“School being canceled for the week, our daughters asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good father, I took the plane with them, ”said Cruz. “My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” he added.
Confronted with a reporter from the Cancun airport on Thursday, Cruz said he was returning home to help restore power to Texans cut off by storms. He later called the trip a “mistake” and said he decided to return after witnessing the controversy his trip sparked online.
Alex Wong / Getty
The Texas Democratic Party called Cruz’s actions “disturbing and disappointing” and told him to resign. Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar and Cruz’s former political rival Beto O’Rourke also criticized him.
“[Cruz] is on vacation in Cancun right now as people freeze to death in the state he was elected to represent and serve, ”O’Rourke told MSNBC.
After returning home to Houston, Cruz was greeted by angry protesters who chanted his resignation. Many Texan newspapers criticized Cruz for leaving the state during a time of crisis. The Progressive Political Action Committee No Excuses has also pledged to air a new commercial on 147 Texas radio stations criticizing Cruz for his trip.
The senator was also mocked on Twitter where users compared him to immigrants from Central and South America trying to cross the southern border into the United States for better living conditions. Photos of a billboard and posters mocking his trip have also gone viral on social media.
Unprecedented snowfall and record-breaking cold temperatures initially left more than 4 million Texas residents without power or heat as the state’s electricity grid suffered a major blackout earlier this week. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a nonprofit council that oversees the power grid, said it did not know when power would be fully restored.
In an update Thursday, Republican state Governor Greg Abbott said he had asked the federal government for a declaration of major disaster. The statement would allow those affected by the storms to apply for federal funds to offset losses not covered by insurance.
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