Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was days into a pre-planned vacation to Athens, Greece, when devastating flash floods hit the Texas Hill Country over the Independence Day weekend.
The senator said he spoke with state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, and President Donald Trump by phone on July 4. Cruz then “promptly” booked a return flight, according to his office.
He departed Athens Sunday morning and landed in Texas that evening, Cruz’s spokesperson Macarena Martinez said, without specifying the exact time of the flight.
By Monday, Cruz was in Kerr County, the site of much of the destruction, for an official briefing.
“Texas is grieving right now,” Cruz said. “The pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state.”
As of July 8, more than 100 people have been confirmed dead, including 27 children and counselors from a girls’ summer camp in the area. Ten campers and one counselor remain missing, as search efforts are ongoing.
At the same Kerrville conference July 7, Cruz criticized “partisan games” in the wake of weather-related disasters.
“There will naturally be a period of retrospection where you look back and say, ‘Ok, what exactly transpired, what was the timeline and what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life?'” Cruz said. “That’s a natural process. I think it should not happen in a bitter and partisan sense, but it should happen in a reasonable sense of saying, what lessons can we learn?”
News of Cruz’s trip abroad was first reported July 7 and drew comparisons to a 2021 incident in which the senator fled the state for Cancún, Mexico, in the midst of an ongoing winter storm. Cruz said at the time the trip was “obviously a mistake.”
His pre-planned trip to Athens over July 4 followed days of debate and voting in the Senate over Trump’s sweeping tax, spending and policy legislation.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ted Cruz in Greece when flash floods hit Texas region
