A mariachi band descended on Senator Ted Cruz’s house on Sunday to troll him and his family over their ill-fated trip to Cancun during the Texas energy crisis.
The band joined protesters outside the Cruz’s home in Houston and played cheerfully on the sidewalk. It’s unclear who hired them.
The Senator was not home at the time. He returned to Texas on Thursday, a day after leaving, after being lambasted for abandoning the state.
The Texas Senator flew to Mexico last Wednesday afternoon with his wife Heidi and their two daughters, aged 10 and 12, while millions in their home state struggled without power, heat and water.
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A mariachi band outside Ted Cruz’s $2million home in Houston, Texas, on Sunday
He flew back the next day amid outcry over the trip, and defended it by saying he was just being a ‘good dad’ and appeasing his ‘girls’, who’d asked if they could jet somewhere warm while Texas froze.
After planning the trip apparently at the last minute, Cruz also invited his David Panton, his roommate from Princeton and Harvard Law, who lives in Atlanta and works in private equity.
Panton accepted and flew to Cancun, where he also got a room at The Ritz-Carlton, Axios has revealed. It’s unclear when he flew back. Panton grew up in Jamaica before attending college in the US. He and Cruz graduated from Princeton in 1992 and from Harvard Law in 1995.
Text messages also show how Heidi Cruz told neighbors and friends that they were ‘escaping’ the ‘freezing’ temperatures.
She asked the others in a group text for women who live on their Houston street if they too could get away.
The family also left behind their poodle, Snowflake.
The trip and his attempts to defend it have been a PR disaster for the Senator.
Protesters have given dubbed the Texas senator ‘Cancun Cruz’ after his brief trip to Mexico on Wednesday
About 30 protesters from the group Houston United Front Against Fascism showed up outside the house he shares with his wife Heidi and two daughters in Houston
Heidi and her family appeared to be met by a security detail, but the senator was nowhere to be seen
Since returning last Thursday, Cruz has been working overtime to mend his image and tackle the ongoing crisis in Texas.
Over the weekend, he served barbecue to first responders in Houston to ‘thank them’ for their work.
The power and water shortage in Texas was caused when Winter Storm Uri blew through the state, driving up the sudden demand for energy.
Texas – which operates on his own electrical grid unlike the rest of the US – wasn’t prepared for it.
Suddenly, everyone in the state needed more energy than ever and there wasn’t enough of it in reserve. The cold weather also closed down power plants which hadn’t been renovated to withstand the frigid temperatures, despite a similar storm in 2011 causing the same problems.
Now, there are serious questions over why those power plants weren’t ready for it.
ERCOT – the agency in charge of the distribution of all the energy in the state – initiated rolling blackouts to try to save what was left of the system.
They switched off power to huge swathes of the state to try to conserve the system, but it meant millions had no heat, water or electricity during historically cold temperatures.
Some, including 11-year-old Cristian Pavon Pineda, froze to death.
Others died trying to keep warm, including a grandmother and three kids, who were killed by a fire they’d started.
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Mariachi band shows up outside Ted Cruz’s Houston mansion to troll him over Mexico trip
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