Sen. Ted Cruz took a moment during his CPAC speech on Friday to take a crack at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for expressing fear during the Capitol insurgence rather than thanking her for raising $5 million for Texans impacted by a mass power and water crisis.
The Texas lawmaker, back from his recent trip to Cancun, Mexico, told the Orlando crowd, “…and AOC is telling us she was murdered” — a clear reference to Ocasio-Cortez saying “I thought I was going to die” when supporters of former President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Ocasio-Cortez made the comment during an Instagram Live video last month. “I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive, and not just in a general sense but also in a very, very specific sense,” she said. Soon after, critics of the 31-year-old Democrat from New York City claimed she overstated how much danger she was in and mislead the public into believing she was closer to the rioters than she actually was.
Cruz’s jab came a few days after AOC helped raise millions for those hard hit in Cruz’s home state of Texas, where a winter storm caused nearly 1.8 million Texans to lose power and some 7 million Texans forced to boil tap water before drinking it. As that was happening, Cruz was caught flying to toasty Cancun for a family vacation. The Lone Star State senator said his home “lost heat and power too,” but that he went on the trip to essentially chaperone the transportation for his daughters.
Meanwhile, AOC launched a fundraiser for Texans affected by the storm and was joined by Texas Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Sheila Jackson Lee in distributing food at the Houston Food Bank. More than $5 million was raised.
But Cruz didn’t just joke about AOC in his CPAC speech; he also quipped about his much-maligned recent trip to Mexico.
“I gotta say, Orlando is awesome,” Cruz said at the beginning of his CPAC speech. “It’s not as nice as Cancun — but it’s nice!”