Saturday Night Live pulled no punches this weekend when tackling Ted Cruz’s controversial Cancun trip. The sketch show started right off with Cruz in its “Weekend Update” segment, with co-host Colin Jost saying: “Well, if you hate Ted Cruz, this was a pretty fun week. And if you like Ted Cruz, you’re Ted Cruz.”
Jost and co-host Michael Che dedicated nearly three minutes to Cruz alone, with punchlines coming in rapid succession. Cruz was condemned for leaving Texas during a historic natural disaster and infrastructure failure this week to wait out the mess in a luxury resort, while his constituents struggled without power, heat or clean water. Jost and Che summarized this story even as they mocked Cruz, and gave a blow-by-blow recap of Cruz’s attempts to save face.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Cruz initially released a statement saying that he only went on vacation because his daughters made him go,” Jost recounted. “And if you think it was bad to throw his daughters under the bus, Cruz would like you to know that that statement was his daughters’ idea.”
“Cruz would have returned from Cancun sooner, but it took him like 40 minutes to get out of a hammock,” Che quipped. Like other commentators, the duo related the Texas crisis to other systemic issues around the U.S. with outdated infrastructure and unreliable utilities.
Even when it seemed like they were transitioning to other topics, Jost and Che came back around with punchlines about Cruz. Jost described President Joe Biden’s newly announced plan to provide an 8-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He added: “But, I don’t know if that’s such a great idea. I mean, have you seen the people coming in from Mexico these days?” A photo of Cruz then flashed beside him.
Cruz will most likely continue to take flak for his Mexico trip for years, and perhaps the remainder of his political career. The senator was caught leaving the U.S. in candid photos taken at the airport, suggesting to many that he was trying to get away in secret. He was then slow to understand how upset his constituents were about the blunder, saying dismissively that the trip was “obviously a mistake.”
Many Texans are now demanding Cruz’s resignation over the Cancun trip, adding their voices to those who wanted Cruz to resign for his part in stoking the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. So far, Cruz has made no move to acquiesce.
