Cancun cruise strikes again because you guys know how much I love to talk about Ted Cruz. So following the tragedy in Kerrville, Texas, over the holiday weekend, Texas Senator Ted Cruz was once again missing in action. But not only was he missing in action, he says he returned to Texas as quickly as [00:00:17] possible once he heard the news of deadly flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country, but new reporting actually suggests otherwise. So Ted was on vacation with his wife in Athens, Greece, over the holiday weekend, and this was just a day after the Guadalupe River in Texas rapidly rose [00:00:35] and flooded the surrounding area, and Ted Cruz was spotted touring the Parthenon. Someone saw him there and told The Daily Beast, quote, he was with his family and a lone security guard. As he walked past us. I simply said, 20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation. [00:00:51] He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide. Meanwhile, emergency workers in Texas were desperately searching for 20 campers who went missing in the flood. I think the current death toll right now is up to 109 people. [00:01:09] Last I checked, the flood has turned out to be one of the deadliest floods in over a century. So this interaction, while embarrassing for Ted, also disproves the claim from his own office that he returned to Texas following the news of the flood. Quote as fast as humanly possible. [00:01:26] Flight records also indicate that there were several earlier flights that Ted could have been on, flying from Athens to San Antonio. Of course, this story is making headlines now because, you know, not just being that because not being there for Texans is kind of the thing [00:01:44] that Ted Cruz does these days, right? It's like his thing now he's making a pattern of it. And the thing that he and his supporters love to say is, you know, what could he have done even if he was there? Well, since Ted has been home, Ted has appeared on Fox News to discuss the flood from Kerrville, [00:02:01] and he's been on the phone trying to get support for the affected community and also from the president. So he is doing something now that he is back in Texas. But, you know, there's a few different angles here, Jake. The most obvious is that, you know, like, let's be fair to Ted Cruz, right? [00:02:18] There's no way that he could have known what was going to happen in Texas while he happened to already be away. This is not the same as when he left Texas in the middle of a of a disaster. That was extra bad, right? But without taking away from the tragedy itself, you know, [00:02:34] there seems to be two different responses. Whenever something like this happens, there's the actual government response to the crisis, whenever it happens. And then there's the response to the response, right. The response to the tragedy. And, you know, while sometimes you can argue that the latter takes away from the former, the latter is also very important part of [00:02:52] holding our elected officials accountable. So now the question becomes, Is Ted Cruz actually a good leader? And do the good people of Texas deserve better than Ted Cruz, even if maybe they don't realize it yet? Yeah. So, first off, he is a little bit unlucky with the vacations. [00:03:10] Yeah. And, and it reminded me of Karen Bass a little bit. And so I thought people were a little unfair to her about the Ghana trip. A little unfair here. On the other hand, they do have to hurry back. I mean, when your town's on fire, you should hurry back. [00:03:25] Or your town is. Or your state is flooded. You should hurry back. And there is empirical evidence that he didn't hurry back because the guy at the Parthenon said 20 kids are dead already in Texas. So if the other tourists knew. [00:03:41] Well, certainly Ted Cruz knew and should have known and should have gotten his ass back to Texas, right? And chose not to. Then the last part of it is, I mean, a natural disaster versus your wife. Who? You know, which one are you going to pick? [00:03:57] Which one are you going to side with? Because I get a sense that she's not happy when he leaves the vacations early. So tough situation for Ted, but it's literally impossible to have any sympathy for him on anything. Yeah. [00:04:13] I will reserve all my sympathy for the victims and for their families. It's very sad what's happened over there. The Guadalupe River, the Guadalupe. You know, that's a very popular tourist destination during the summer. A lot of Texans flock there from Dallas, Houston, wherever. I've floated on that river so many times. It's a good time. [00:04:30] It's. It's very sad what's happened over there. And I hate to be like thoughts and prayers, but like, yeah, we're I really hope that something comes through for these people. And there's a lot of ways to volunteer to help them. And Ted Cruz could probably take a hint from some of those people. Yeah. [00:04:45] I mean, the only good news about him not rushing back is it's not like Ted Cruz is going to make a difference. Every time you ring the bell, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.