Sen. Ted Cruz’s Tweet Criticizing California Power Outages Resurfaces During Texas Blackout

Last week, Texas has grappled with record low temperatures and rolling blizzards, which left millions without power. Power has been gradually restored this week.

The recent blackout in Texas marks less than a year since rolling outages struck California during which Texas lawmakers mocked the state’s crisis as a result of California Democrats’ green policies.

Here are three Texas Republicans mocking California power outages last year and my Dallas bathtub this morning, a literal block of ice pic.twitter.com/ViGZuTZz40

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) February 16, 2021

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Sen. Ted Cruz‘s tweet attracted particular attention, having specifically cited “CA’s failed energy policy” on then-campaigning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as, bizarrely, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). A Twitter-user commented last week on Cruz’s original tweet, mentioning their own experiences with the blackout.

My parents hv been without electricity for almost 24hrs in Houston they are not even rotating power outages in Houston anymore. Looks like Republicans like you took energy for granted, and didn’t invest enough in the power grid in Texas.

— Cloudydays16 need PPE now (@cloudydays1971) February 16, 2021

Quote-tweeting a Hill article about his tone-deaf tweet, Cruz said he has “no defense,” but did not apologize for his original comments. The next day Cruz was caught on a flight to Cancun.

I got no defense. ??‍♂️

A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.

Stay safe! https://t.co/kBPGrGHmvI

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2021