Senator Ted Cruz joked about his trip to Cancun in the midst of a Texas-level crisis last week that brought cold temperatures, widespread power outages and burst pipes that flooded homes.
Speaking on Friday morning at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Cruz (R-Texas) made the comments as he began his speech.
“God bless the CPAC,” the Texas senator began, “I must say, Orlando is incredible. It is not as good as Cancún, but it is good. “
The observation was met with laughter and sighs from the crowd.
The event, which was moved from Washington, DC to Orlando, Fla., Due to coronavirus restrictions, began Friday morning with comments from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Cruz has been doing damage control after the scandal, which broke out after he was caught flying into the Mexican tourist town with his wife and two daughters, 10 and 12, days after Texas was affected by a unique winter storm in life .
He was forced to shorten the trip, flying home the next day, and do a mea culpa.
Cruz was under intense scrutiny about the optics of the miniforms – and for leaving the family dog, Snowflake, alone at home, without power or heating.
“Apparently, I fed Snowflake to the wolves,” said Cruz, dismissing the reaction. “He was at home with a dog sitter. The heating was kind of on. The whole thing is a little absurd. “
He also said that his wife, Heidi, was “upset” about the leak to the text media showing her inviting friends from the neighborhood for the family trip.
During his ardent CPAC speech, Cruz also targeted former Mayor John Boehner, who made news on Thursday after an Axios report revealed that he offered the Texas senator a swearing message in his new book .
“Oh, and Ted Cruz, go fuck yourself -” Boehner said as a side note when recording the audiobook for his next book.
The message is not written in the text of the book, entitled “On The House: A Washington Memoir”.
Boehner appeared to address the report in a tweet on Thursday, where he wrote: “I poured myself a glass of something good to read my audiobook. You can blame wine for bad words. “
The tweet featured a photo of the former mayor sitting next to a microphone with a glass of wine in his hand.
Cruz did not initially comment on Boehner’s reported dissent – until he reached the CPAC stage.
“You know, yesterday, John Boehner made some news. He suggested that I do something that is anatomically impossible. To which my answer was: Who is John Boehner? “