MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” reacted Friday to Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancún, Mexico, calling it “a dumbass move” and saying his excuses for going were “pathetic.”
Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, as well as multiple guests, criticized Cruz for taking the family trip amid the aftermath of a historic winter storm and arctic freeze across Texas. (RELATED: ‘That’s Nonsense!’: Fox’s Will Cain Blasts Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Claim On Texas Infrastructure Following Winter Storm)
“There’s so many things that are wrong with what happened over the past couple of days. I just go back to my time in Congress. And I know he’s had a couple of Trump-type people trying to defend him saying there’s nothing a senator could do. I just go back to when we had hurricanes in our district. It was all men and women on board,” Scarborough began.
“It was all hands on deck. If I had ever decided I was going to go on a foreign vacation, a vacation overseas when a hurricane had hit, I promise my staff would have — before letting me do that, they would have put a tranquilizer gun, shot me in my neck to stop me from going. This is actually beyond the realm of anything — I’m almost speechless,” he continued.
The massive storm hit Texas on Monday causing an arctic freeze and left millions of people without power in the frigid temperatures. As of Wednesday, at least 21 people have died as a result of the storm.
Cruz departed for Cancún with his family Wednesday, but returned Thursday after it was revealed he made the trip. He initially said he only flew down overnight to drop off daughters, but later apologized for the trip saying it was “a mistake.”
“Well, look, I’m just a dumb country comms guy, and in the very sophisticated world of political communication this is what you call a dumbass move. There’s really no excuse for it … This is gross, negligent, reckless incompetence,” political analyst Rick Tyler chimed in.
Later in the show, host Mika Brzezinski brought up the topic of Cruz’s attempted vacation in a discussion with political analyst Elise Jordan.
“He said it was, quote, a mistake to go on a family vacation to Cancún, Mexico. But it didn’t start that way. He first blamed the trip that he took during a complete weather and grid catastrophe in his state on his kids … Then it came out he was a part of — his wife sent out group texts to friends saying let’s go to Cancún, their house is freezing … so, that turned out to be a lie that it was for his kids,” Brzezinski said.
Brzezinski added that Cruz also lied about when he was returning from Cancún, that he was dropping his family off and coming back the next day. She also pointed out that some “on the right” were defending Cruz and questioning what he really had the ability to do to help the state amid the catastrophe.
“What do you make of his very misguided trip to Mexico?” she then asked Jordan.
“Well, the bar really is so low if the defense of a U.S. senator in his home state under crisis … if he is ascribed so little power that oh he can’t do anything, he would be better off sunning and working remotely at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún. It’s just pathetic. There are so many episodes in politics these days that just make your jaw drop, but this is particularly egregious … I am so disgusted,” Jordan responded.