'Cancun Cruz must resign': Protesters gather outside Texas senator's $2million Houston home following his trip to Mexico as millions in the storm-ravaged state remain without safe water
Angry protesters holding signs reading 'Cancun Cruz must resign' and 'Cruz's lies cost lives' descended on the senator's $2million Houston home on Sunday following his Mexican jaunt.
About 30 protesters from the group Houston United Front Against Fascism showed up outside his family home where he lives with his wife Heidi, daughters Caroline, 12 and Catherine 10, and dog Snowflake in the River Oaks neighborhood at around 1pm.
They chanted 'He he, ho ho, Ted Cruz needs to go' and held banners decrying his actions after he jetted off to Cancun on Wednesday as Texans froze to death in their homes.
In a reference to the family's pet dog, Snowflake, who was left behind when they flew to Mexico, one person held a sign reading: 'Hey, Snowflake... We hate him too!'
The senator returned to the storm-ravaged state less than 24 hours later and his wife flew back with his daughters Catherine, 12, and Caroline, 10, on Saturday evening.
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
In a reference to the family's pet dog, Snowflake, who was left behind when they flew to Mexico, one person held a sign reading: 'Hey, Snowflake... We hate him too!'
The protesters chanted 'He he, ho ho, Ted Cruz needs to go' and held banners decrying his actions after he jetted off to Cancun on Wednesday
Protesters are seen standing outside Ted Cruz's $2 million home in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, Texas, on Sunday
The senator returned to the storm-ravaged state less than 24 hours after he left and his wife flew back with his daughters Catherine, 12, and Caroline, 10, on Saturday evening. Protesters are seen outside his home, left and right, on Sunday
Cruz at first claimed he was being a 'good dad' by accompanying his family and their friends to Cancun before admitting he regretted going. A protester is seen carrying a sign reading 'Traitor Ted'
It is not known whether the senator, the wife or their children were at home at the time of the protest. A woman holds a sign calling for 'Mattress Mack' to become senator. Jim 'Mattress Mack' McIngvale, a Texas furniture store owner, opened his business as a shelter for those left without power in the state earlier this week
A protester holds a sign reading: 'Dear Canada, if you keep sending us this weather, we're gonna send Ted Cruz back to you! You have been warned!
Law enforcement are pictured outside the senator's Houston home as the protesters gathered following his Mexico jaunt
Police officers stand guard outside the property on Sunday, although it is not known whether the family were home at the time
There was a large police presence outside the $2 million Houston property after Ted Cruz sparked outrage with his trip to Mexico
Protesters have given dubbed the Texas senator 'Cancun Cruz' after his brief trip to Mexico on Wednesday
Cruz at first claimed he was being a 'good dad' by accompanying his family and their friends to Cancun before admitting he regretted going.
It is not known whether the senator, the wife or their children were at home at the time of the protest.
At one point a Houston police officer went up to the chanting protesters with a decibel meter in his hand to measure the noise, while about 20 other local Houston police officers stood by observing the demonstration.
Event organizer, Dr. Donald Michael Smith, 66, a retired professor at the College of the Mainland, told DailyMail.com: ‘We are protesting out in front of Ted Cruz’s house today for several reasons, he first abandoned the state in case of emergency while people were dying to fly to Cancun and then was caught in a pack of lies and he contributed to the siege on the attack of the US Capitol on January 6, he needs to resign now.
‘He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas.
‘We can’t wait for him to be voted out in three or four years, he needs to leave now.
‘We are going to be out in front of his house as often as we can, until he resigns.’
The same day Cruz returned back from Cancun, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flew into Houston and raised $4 million in donations to help Texas recover from the winter storm. Ocasio-Cortez has called for Cruz’s resignation in the past over the Capitol riot.
Cruz was one of the ringleaders of the so-called 'treason caucus' who supported a House GOP effort to challenge Electoral College votes in key swing states, which lent weight to former President Donald Trump's claims that widespread voter fraud robbed him of a second term.
Cruz was mocked on Saturday for sharing photos of himself handing out bottled water in a photo-op.
Late on Saturday night Cruz posted a series of pictures of himself on Twitter showing him delivering water to those in need together with the hashtag #TexasStrong.
In three photographs, Cruz could be seen placing the packs of water in a back seat and trunk of people's cars, however it is not known exactly where and when the pictures were taken.
Senator Ted Cruz tweeted a photo op late on Saturday night with the hashtag #TexasStrong
In three photographs, Cruz could be seen placing the packs of water in a back seat and trunk of people's cars
Cruz posted the pictures to his Twitter account late on Saturday night and was roundly criticized for doing so
It is not known exactly where and when the pictures were taken. He was roundly mocked for posting it
Millions of Texans were still without safe water on Sunday and officials are fielding angry complaints over shockingly large power bills spawned by a cold weather crisis that Houston's mayor said was ultimately preventable.
The frigid air mass that paralyzed parts of the southern and central United States early in the week claimed more than 70 lives, left millions temporarily without power and froze water lines.
'All of what happened this week was foreseeable and preventable,' Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told CBS's 'Face the Nation,' saying it had long been clear that the independent electric grid in Texas was vulnerable to extreme weather.
Turner said Houston, the fourth-largest US city, still needed both plumbing supplies and plumbers, but was making progress in restoring service.
Both Houston and nearby Galveston on Sunday lifted orders for residents to boil drinking water.
Heidi stayed at the popular but pricey $300-a-night Ritz Carlton resort - where the wintry chaos enveloping Texas appeared far from everyone's minds
Heidi is seen having fun in the sun in Cancun while Texans froze to death in their homes this week
Heidi and her family appeared to be met by a security detail when they returned to Houston on Saturday, but the senator was nowhere to be seen
As Heidi marched out of the airport with her kids and an unidentified boy - all of whom were wearing masks - at 6pm, DailyMail.com asked her several questions, all of which she refused to answer
Cruz - seen at Cancun airport on Thursday before his flight back to Texas - was slammed for blaming the trip on his daughters
But some 28,000 households remained without electricity on Sunday, the poweroutage.us website said, and many Texans were suffering an added insult: residential electric bills sometimes running into the thousands of dollars, with one as high as $16,000.
While most of the state's utility customers are on fixed-rate plans, some had signed up to variable-rate plans that can save money in fair weather but produce explosive increases in frigid temperatures.
Governor Greg Abbott met with legislators of both parties Saturday to discuss the billing problem and said, 'We have a responsibility to protect Texans from spikes in their energy bills.'
For his part, Turner said 'those exorbitant costs (should be) borne by the state of Texas, and not the individual consumers who did not cause this catastrophe.'
President Joe Biden on Saturday issued a major-disaster declaration for much of the state, providing badly needed financial and administrative aid.
Water is loaded into cars at a City of Houston water distribution site. The drive-thru stadium location was set up to provide bottled water to residents on February 19
Nancy Wilson boils water in her home in Houston on February 19. Millions of Texans were still without safe water on Sunday
His spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Sunday that Biden hoped to visit Texas 'as early as this week' if he could do so without interfering with recovery efforts.
Michael McCaul, a Republican congressman from Texas, said the financial impact of the weather crisis could equal that of Hurricane Harvey, a devastating 2017 storm that caused an estimated $125 billion in damages.
He said Biden's emergency declaration could provide funds to help users pay their exorbitant electric bills.
State and local officials have demanded investigations of how the power crisis unfolded so disastrously.
A US senator, Tina Smith, a Democrat of Minnesota, has called for a federal investigation. She said spot prices of natural gas had spiked by up to 100 times normal rates, and utilities passed the higher rates on to customers.
No comments