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The Swamp can exclusively reveal that Ted Cruz stayed in Greece and continued to sightsee as rescuers scoured the floodwaters in Central Texas that killed at least 100 people, including 27 campers and counselors from a summer camp.
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The Texas senator was spotted visiting the Parthenon in the Greek capital, Athens, with his wife, Heidi, on Saturday evening. That was a day after Camp Mystic announced that more than 20 girls had gone missing in the floodwaters.
On Saturday, July 5, at about 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET)—more than 24 hours after the Guadalupe River burst its banks—Cruz and his wife were spotted by a Swamp spy lining up outside the iconic tourist site.
“He was with his family and a lone security guard,” said an eyewitness at the Parthenon. “As he walked past us, I simply said, ‘20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?’
“He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”
While Cruz admired the Doric columns of the fifth century B.C. ancient Greek temple, emergency workers were still searching for summer campers and families caught in the flash floods that cascaded through Texas Hill Country and inundated the Guadalupe River.
It is not the first time that Cruz has faced criticism for holidaying while his constituents have faced a natural disaster.
In 2021, Cruz took his family on a trip to Cancun, Mexico, after Texas was hit by a winter storm that left millions in his state freezing without power or water. At the time, the senator defended his sunshine flight by saying he wanted to be “a good dad” but returned because “it didn’t feel right.”
The death toll has now topped 100 from the Texas deluge, which began Friday, July 4, and is one of the deadliest floods in over a century.
Cruz is understood to have landed in Athens on Thursday, the day after the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced that it was activating state emergency response resources.
On the day Cruz touched down in Europe, NPR reported that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held a press conference—as acting governor—warning of the “potential flooding“ that would hit overnight.
The following day, on Friday, July 4, the lieutenant governor was forced to call a second press conference to address the scale of the disaster. “My name is Dan Patrick, lieutenant governor, acting governor, the, uh, governor’s out of state today,” he began. “On a day which is usually for celebration. It’s a very tough day in Texas. We had a disastrous flash flood.”
In Athens, it was a calm and sunny day, peaking at 93F.
Cruz didn’t get a plane back to Texas until Sunday.
He was at the scene of the flooding in Kerrville, Texas, on Monday morning.
The senator told a press conference he was on the phone to state officials within hours of the flood.
“In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and then I called President Trump,” said Cruz on Monday morning.
“He was having dinner at the time, it was still early in what was transpiring, and I wanted him to know. I said, Mr. President, from everything we’re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad.
“There may be a very significant loss of life unfolding right now in Texas... The president said, ‘Ted… whatever assets you need, whatever resources you need, yes, let us know, and we will provide everything.’
“Within hours, we had over a dozen helicopters in the air, National Guard, DPS, game wardens, Coast Guard, doing search and rescue.”
However, it appears that Cruz still managed to enjoy some of the sights of Athens after this phone call.
On Monday, Cruz also appeared live on Fox & Friends from Kerrville, Texas, in the area worst hit by the disaster and posted a number of messages on X.
“There aren’t words to describe the grief that Texans are feeling. Pray for Texas and Kerr County.”
He told reporters he picked up his own daughter, Catherine, from a camp just down the road from Camp Mystic.
“We picked up our youngest daughter [Catherine] last week from camp, five miles away,” he said.
“I will tell you I’ve been speaking to moms and dads, number one, of kids who are still missing and the agony of not knowing where your daughter is—there’s nothing like that.”
In January, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was widely criticized after she traveled to Ghana while wildfires raged through California, leaving 29 people dead and more than 180,000 buildings destroyed.
Cruz’s staff refused to offer comment on the record to The Swamp before publication but wanted to go off the record, to which The Swamp agreed, believing that Cruz’s aides were speaking to us in good faith. Our initial report therefore reflected their claim that it had been impossible for Cruz to get a flight until Sunday.
After we published, Cruz’s communications director Macarena Martinez posted on X that she had spoken to the Daily Beast and said, “A bulls--- piece published by a bulls--- rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas. The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible. I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter.” Notably Martinez denied none of the facts of The Swamp’s revelations.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Swamp is written by David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice.
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