Reacting to a controversial trip from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the midst of a brutal winter storm, podcast host Joe Rogan asked what the senator could actually have done if he were to stay in Texas, seemingly offering at least a partial defense of Cruz.
“But here’s the thing,” Rogan said, speaking to his guest, comedian Tim Dillon. “What can he do? What is the reason for him staying?”
The pair agreed that the issue was “optics.”
“I think it’s just the optics of how it looked,” Dillon said.
“Can he make it warm out?” Rogan mocking asked.
“No, I don’t think he has any power to do anything good,” Dillon added.
Sen. Cruz last week took a family trip to Cancun, Mexico, as his home state was suffering from the storm and subsequent widespread power blackouts.
Cruz was photographed Wednesday on a plane heading from Houston to Cancun; he made a return trip back to Texas on Thursday following backlash.
The Daily Wire reported on Cruz’s response to the controversy:
“We left yesterday, the plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family,” he said, referencing how the last week “has been tough on a lot of folks” and recounting how his family had been reduced to clustering around the fireplace after they lost power.
When his daughters found out that school had been canceled for the week, Cruz explained, they suggested taking a vacation. “They said, ‘Look, why don’t we take a trip? Let’s go somewhere where it’s not so cold.’”
Cruz admitted, however, that his doubts about taking a vacation began immediately. “I have to admit, I started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane,” he said. “Because, on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. That’s something Texans have been doing across the state.”
Following the “firestorm” that erupted after the story emerged, Cruz said his initial doubts worsened. “When I arrived and I saw the initial firestorm, what had started with second thoughts that I had as soon as we left grew even greater,” he said, adding that he regrets that his trip has become “such a distraction when so many Texans are hurting and angry and mad.”
With protesters in the background chanting “resign,” Cruz addressed whether his trip was “tone-deaf.” “Look, it was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it,” he said, adding, “I was trying to be a dad.”
In July, Rogan announced that he was finished with Los Angeles and moving to Texas, looking for “a little bit more freedom.”
The Daily Wire reported:
“I’m outta here,” Rogan said during a Friday interview with CEO of Spartan and Death Race Joe De Sena.
Rogan told De Sena he is leaving L.A. for Texas “soon” because he wants to live somewhere that is “in the center of the country, somewhere it’s easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom.” Rogan also cited L.A.’s overcrowding, which he says proves problematic in the age of COVID-19.
“When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that’s accelerated radically over the last six, seven, ten years, I think there’s too many people here,” said Rogan. “I think it’s not tenable. I don’t think it’s manageable. I think every mayor does a sh*t job of doing it, because I don’t think anybody could do a great job of it. I think there’s certain things you’re gonna have to deal with when you have a population of whatever the f**k L.A. is, it’s like 20 million plus people.”