Ted Cruz has had a terrible 2021 and its only April

It’s fair to say that politicians will have the odd gaffe from time-to-time, but for Republican senator, Ted Cruz, this year has been terrible... and we’re only four months in.

From fanning the flames of the Capitol insurrection, to scarpering on vacation amid a one-in-a-century storm for his state, we felt that a timeline was called for to chronicle his disastrous first quarter.

Jan 6: The Capitol Insurrection

Cruz played a role in amplifying the false claims of voter fraud by objecting to the ceremonial counting of Electoral College Votes.

Rhetoric, which drove the violent insurrection at the Capitol where five people died and more than 140 people were injured.

The Texas Senator later denied any responsibility and aimed the blame solely at President Trump.

“Look, I think he plainly bears some responsibility,” Cruz said to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth . “At the end of the day, criminals are responsible for their own conduct and the terrorists who conducted that attack, they bear the responsibility. But I think his angry rhetoric was reckless, and I think it was harmful.”

Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Patty Murray, Chris Coons, Sherrod Brown, and Sheldon Whitehouse, called on Cruz to resign.

Jan 11: Outrage at being compared to Nazis backfired after old speech resurfaced

Less than a week later, Cruz attempted to slam then president-elect Joe Biden for comparing right-wing tactics to Nazi propaganda, though Biden never explicitly used any of those terms.

But keen-eyed Twitter users found an example of Cruz doing the same thing.

Cruz’s faux outrage and any moral high ground gained was short-lived as NPR host Peter Sagal found an example of Cruz using explicit Nazi comparisons in the name of politics.

In his speech at the time he said:

“Neville Chamberlain told the British people: ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let’s appease them. Why? Because it can’t be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.’

Jan 21: The bizarre Twitter rant about Paris

Then of course, came the odd ‘Trump style’ Twitter rant where Cruz failed to grasp that the Paris Climate Agreement wasn’t in fact, just for the people of Paris...

The real reason it is named after the French capital is because the treaty was agreed on by 196 different state parties (i.e. not just Parisians) near the city.

Feb 12: The ‘disingenuous’ and ‘out of touch’ comments about Black History Month

New month, new controversy.

This time for Cruz’s “out of touch” tweet about Black History Month.

He accused the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Turner Network Television (TNT) of “obvious bias” against Republicans for honouring Black Democrats as part of a Black History Month segment.

Cruz questioned why Black Republicans like Tim Scott or Condoleezza Rice were not included alongside Black Democrats, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams who were pictured on screen.

People argued that Cruz had no right in telling anyone which Black political figures they should or shouldn’t be celebrating.

Feb 18: Escaping to Cancun, Mexico during Texas weather crisis

Texas experienced one of it’s biggest weather crisis’ after a huge storm caused water shortages and power outages for millions of people.

Around 13 million Texans were told to boil water that may have been contaminated.

So as one of the Senators for Texas, what did Cruz do to help those in need?

He did what any noble, heroic, public servant would do...

...and jetted off with his family to Cancun, Mexico of course!

Cruz defended himself saying that he planned the holiday for his daughters, “wanting to be a good dad”, but had returned because it “didn’t feel right”.

But many criticised his decision to go in the first place:

Mar 29: Mocked for hiding in bushes on US-Mexico border

After fleeing his home the month before, Cruz ironically posted a video of himself to his 4.4 million followers from the banks of the Rio Grande river, demonising those who were attempting to get across the US border.

In the clip, Cruz claimed: “On the other side of the river is Mexico. On the other side of the river, we have been listening to and seeing Cartel members. Human traffickers, right on the other side of the river.”

Twitter users quickly began to mock Cruz for hiding in the bushes:

Apr 8: Being tricked into retweeting account that mocked one of his most embarrassing moments

Ken Klippenstein, a reporter forThe Intercept, shared a tweet about Nasa asking their employees if they would be willing to volunteer to work at facilities that are housing unaccompanied migrant children.

Cruz simply retweeted Klippenstein adding the words ‘seems bad.’

This odd interaction prompted Klippenstein to change his Twitter profile name to ‘Ted Cruz liked a porn tweet.’

This reference dates back to 2017 when Cruz was caught accidentally liking a very NSFW tweet, which featured a clip from a pornographic movie.

Although, Cruz later realised and deleted his tweet, Klippenstein was quick enough to get a screenshot.

With the year Ted Cruz is having, we can only expect there will more be more gaffes and controversies to come in 2021.