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Someone Leaks Heidi Cruz’s Damning Group Chat Texts About Cancún Trip. Schadenfreude Ensues.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during his election night watch party at the Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station on May 3, 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Cruz lost the Indiana Primary to his rival Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announces the suspension of his presidential campaign as wife Heidi Cruz looks on during an election night watch party at the Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station on May 3, 2016 in Indianapolis, I... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announces the suspension of his presidential campaign as wife Heidi Cruz looks on during an election night watch party at the Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station on May 3, 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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February 19, 2021 8:17 a.m.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), facing an outpouring of backlash after being caught fleeing to a tropical getaway in Mexico on Wednesday as millions of Texans went without running water or heat during a snowstorm, attempted to do some damage control on Thursday by slinking back to his home state and shamelessly pinning the blame on his kids. His two pre-teen daughters had asked to go to Cancún, the Republican senator claimed, and “wanting to be a good dad,” he decided to fly with them on Wednesday night.

Cruz notably did not mention at the time when he had originally planned to return to the U.S., raising suspicions over the true motives behind his departure from Mexico so soon after photos of him on the plane went viral.

And then someone in a group chat with Heidi Cruz, the senator’s wife, threw everything into a tailspin.

Not long after Cruz issued his statement, the New York Times published a scoop detailing a series of texts from Heidi Cruz in the group chat in which she complained about her “FREEZING” home in Texas and invited everyone to join her and her family at the Ritz Carlton in Cancún. One of the texts included her flight itinerary that showed their return was scheduled for Sunday.

“Anyone can or want to leave for the week?” Heidi Cruz asked.

Another person in the group chat confirmed the veracity of the texts to the Times, and Democratic opposition group American Bridge posted full screenshots of the messages, which did not directly mention Cruz’s children. One of them did note, however, that the hotel rooms were $309 plus tax per night.

The GOP senator later admitted that he had cut his trip short, claiming that he “started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane” and that the vacation was “obviously a mistake.”

The brutal fact that at least two people in the Cruzs’ inner circle (or at least in close proximity to them) saw fit to leak embarrassing private texts to one of the biggest news outlets in the country didn’t go unnoticed:

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Cristina Cabrera (@crismcabrera)  is a newswriter at TPM based in New York. She previously worked for Vocativ, USA Today and NY1 News.
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