Seth Rogen condemns Ted Cruz for leaving Texans to ‘freeze to death’

Senator has acknowledged taking a family vacation as Texas grapples with extreme weather

Seth Rogen has criticised Ted Cruz after it emerged the Texas senator took a trip to Mexico as his state continues to grapple with deadly power outages amid freezing weather.

Rogen and Cruz have sparred on Twitter on multiple occasions in the past, including earlier this month when Cruz attempted an Avengers analogy while discussing politics.

Cruz acknowledged he traveled to Cancun this week for a family vacation, after photos appearing to show him traveling began circulating.

He said in a statement that his two daughters “asked to take a trip with friends” after their classes were cancelled, and that he “flew them down last night” with plans to return on Thursday afternoon (18 February).

The trip has prompted a wave of criticism and calls for the senator to resign.

Rogen tore into Cruz in a tweet that referenced the Capitol insurrection that took place on 6 January, writing: “I think @SenTedCruz is desperately trying to rebrand from the ‘inspired a deadly insurrection’ motherf***** to the ‘left my constituents to freeze to death so I could go to Cancun’ motherf*****, but luckily he can be both. He’s just that big a motherf*****.’

Hundreds of thousands of homes were still without heat on Thursday after extreme weather caused widespread outages. Many were also struggling to access food and clean water. The deep freeze has affected Texas and several other states across the south of the US.

According to The Associated Press, more than three dozen deaths have been attributed to the extreme weather in affected areas. An earlier New York Times report cited causes ranging from carbon monoxide poisoning to a house fire, traffic crashes, and possible exposure to the cold.