Flight data shows Sen. Ted Cruz could have rushed back to his flood-hit Texas constituency after the deaths of 100 people — including 27 girls and counsellors at a summer camp, the Daily Beast reported Tuesday.
Instead, he was seen touring the Parthenon in Athens, a full day after the Guadalupe River burst its banks. When confronted by a witness who said, "20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?" Cruz reportedly "grunted and walked on" while his wife shot dirty looks.
Despite his office claiming Cruz returned from Greece "as fast as humanly possible" after the tragedy hit Friday, flight data obtained by the Beast shows multiple flights from Athens to San Antonio were available on both Friday and Saturday that would have gotten Cruz back to Texas significantly earlier than his Sunday return.
Commercial options included Saturday morning departures connecting through Chicago, Atlanta, or Washington D.C. that would have landed him in San Antonio that same evening. Friday flights were also available once the flooding's severity became apparent.
As a senator, Cruz also had access to private charter jets for emergency travel.
This marks another episode of Cruz being thousands of miles from Texas during crises. The senator infamously fled to Cancun during the deadly 2021 winter storm that left millions without power, only returning after intense backlash.
Cruz had arrived in Athens on Thursday for a "brief break" after the Senate passed Trump's legislative package. But while he was sightseeing with his family, search and rescue teams were frantically digging through debris searching for survivors in his home state.
The devastating floods dumped over a month's worth of rain across central Texas, with Camp Mystic particularly hard hit where at least 20 girls went missing. By Monday, Cruz was back doing damage control, appearing on Fox & Friends from Kerrville, the town the camp is based in, and posting thoughts and prayers on social media.
"There aren't words to describe the grief that Texans are feeling," he wrote.
Cruz's office dismissed the Beast’s reporting as a "bull----piece" with "no regard for the tragedy.”