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"The View" co-host Meghan McCain didn't exactly defend Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for abandoning his constituents for Cancún during a statewide power outage, but she did change the subject.

The Texas Republican ended the widely criticized vacation after about 12 hours and flew home without his wife and children, who he tried to blame for the travel plans, but McCain didn't really feel like talking about it.

A former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) bashed his decision to fly to vacation for a family vacation in Cancún.

Rick Tyler told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the entire episode was inexcusable -- from the initial decision to travel to Mexico while Texas endured a historic winter storm to each phase of his reaction to widespread condemnation.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) landed in Texas from Cancún Thursday afternoon after a quick trip. He released a statement earlier Thursday saying that he had to take his daughters to Mexico and drop them off on the United Airlines flight. However, investigators confirmed that Cruz didn't change his return trip until early Thursday morning. Before that, he was scheduled to return on Saturday, said a travel reporter for Skift who spoke to United Airlines.

Cruz said in the airport that his children asked if they could go on a resort vacation because their power was out and it was cold and he said that he agreed. That flies in the face of previous reports that he was traveling "for a long-planned trip with his family," said the Austin American-Statesman. Cruz said he was being "a good dad" by allowing his children to go to the beach despite there being a global pandemic and Mexico being under a "Level 3 Travel Advisory" from the U.S. State Department.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is being criticized for his Mexico vacation in the middle of the pandemic and even fellow conservative Meghan McCain attacked him.

Speaking on "The View" Thursday, McCain called Cruz's vacation "one of the worst optics" she said she can think of.

Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive of Dallas County, revealed to MSNBC that none of the state's Republican officials have contacted him about the crisis, but that the White House has been offering any help he needs.

Speaking to MSNBC host Hallie Jackson Thursday, Judge Jenkins said that the CEO of ERCOT said that everyone should have powered restored by Friday. While outage maps show that under 500,000 people are without power, Judge Jenkins said that in his area there are about 70,000 people in north Texas without power because transformers have frozen and are offline. He said that technicians are out attempting to fix the transformers.

Beto O'Rourke laid into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as their fellow Texans shiver in a historic winter emergency.

The Democratic former congressman unsuccessfully challenged Cruz in the 2018 election, but he called on the Texas Republican to be held accountable for his role in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection -- and questioned his character and leadership.

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley was furious speaking with CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday evening.

Speaking from his Austin, Texas home surrounded by flashlights and candles, Brinkley unleashed on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the mismanagement of the crisis.

In a call-in interview with Fox News Wednesday, former President Donald Trump lamented that there weren't more "riots" and that if Democrats had been the ones who lost, there would have been a greater response.

"You would have had riots going all over the place if that happened to a Democrat. We don't have the same support at certain levels of the Republican system," said Trump.

Speaking to Newsmax on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump lamented that he misses his old job.

After spending 298 days on the golf course as president, according to TrumpGolfCount, Trump can now spend as many days as he wants battling a full 18-hole course.

On CNN Wednesday, congressional correspondent Manu Raju reported on the reaction of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to former President Donald Trump's personal attack calling him a "dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack" and warning he will intervene in primaries to oppose his direction for the party.

"Mitch McConnell actually laughed about Donald Trump's statement when he first saw this, according to a source familiar with the matter," said Raju. "Mitch McConnell has no plans to respond. In fact, I'm told by multiple sources that he plans to ignore Donald Trump altogether as he tries to navigate the post-Trump era ... [he] is making clear privately that he does not want to get into a back and forth with Donald Trump. Instead he wants to focus squarely on Republicans who can win key Senate races in primaries and focus on targeting the Biden agenda, believing that that can unify Republicans going forward."

On MSNBC Wednesday, former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi offered a theory as to why the Capitol Police have not spoken out about their experience of the pro-Trump riot in January.

"We heard the House impeachment managers tell the most detailed version of their story that day, but we still have not heard from Capitol Police," said anchor Nicolle Wallace.

People's lives are at risk, and so far, ten people have died from the cold in Texas. In a massive emergency, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) took to Fox News' Sean Hannity to complain about the Green New Deal, saying that Democrats are to blame for the state's disaster.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke explained that the state is facing such a massive crisis with people desperate for help, but the leaders are spending more time spinning it on right-wing news instead of doing their jobs. Former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), who was the Secretary of Energy, said that Texans would rather freeze than have help from the federal government. President Joe Biden sent in the National Guard with fuel and other things to help.

President Joe Biden used Air Force One over the weekend to fly to Delaware, but on Tuesday evening, Biden also used the plane to fly to a town hall in Wisconsin. The moment wasn't anything other than a president hopping on his ride, but for QAnon it was devastating.

Speaking to Ayman Mohyeldin Wednesday, NBC News reporter Ben Collins explained that the far-right conspiracy group is in a kind of "holding pattern" as Biden finishes his first month in office.