NPR reported<\/a> that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held a press conference\u2014as acting governor\u2014warning of the \u201cpotential flooding\u201c that would hit overnight.<\/p>\n![\"Camp](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AFVSOWXV7ZHLFJRER3X7UEIX7E.jpg\")
Twenty-seven campers and counselors at Camp Mystic were among the dead in the historic Texas flooding. RONALDO SCHEMIDT\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
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. \u201cMy name is Dan Patrick, lieutenant governor, acting governor, the, uh, governor\u2019s out of state today,\u201d he began. \u201cOn a day which is usually for celebration. It\u2019s a very tough day in Texas. We had a disastrous flash flood.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Athens, it was a calm and sunny day, peaking at 93F.<\/p>\n
![\"Ted](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/WFNUCJXMVJE25GMFI5YL7NAZA4.png\")
Ted Cruz was in Athens on Saturday while rescuers were searching for flood victims in Texas. The Swamp <\/p>\n
Cruz didn\u2019t get a plane back to Texas until Sunday. <\/p>\n
He was at the scene of the flooding in Kerrville, Texas, on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
The senator told a press conference he was on the phone to state officials within hours of the flood. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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,\u201d said Cruz on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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\u2019re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere may be a very significant loss of life unfolding right now in Texas… The president said, \u2018Ted\u2026 whatever assets you need, whatever resources you need, yes, let us know, and we will provide everything.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWithin hours, we had over a dozen helicopters in the air, National Guard, DPS, game wardens, Coast Guard, doing search and rescue.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, it appears that Cruz still managed to enjoy some of the sights of Athens after this phone call.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t words to describe the grief that Texans are feeling. Pray for Texas and Kerr County.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told reporters he picked up his own daughter, Catherine, from a camp just down the road from Camp Mystic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe picked up our youngest daughter [Catherine] last week from camp, five miles away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will tell you I\u2019ve been speaking to moms and dads, number one, of kids who are still missing and the agony of not knowing where your daughter is\u2014there\u2019s nothing like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Cruz\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
After we published, Cruz\u2019s communications director Macarena Martinez posted on X that she had spoken to the Daily Beast and said, \u201cA 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.\u201d Notably Martinez denied none of the facts of The Swamp\u2019s revelations.<\/p>\n
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n
The Swamp is written by David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Beast of a time in Washington. Donald Trump\u2019s D.C. reality show is full of new characters,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1151,8179,18688,2000,299,5187,12492,95601,94702,369],"class_list":{"0":"post-246468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-athens","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-disaster","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-flood","15":"tag-parthenon","16":"tag-ted-cruz","17":"tag-texas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114814515361258180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ted](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2GXNJND44NHU5IY6BRMD6EQUP4.png\")
Ted Cruz was in Athens on Saturday while rescuers were searching for flood victims in Texas. The Swamp <\/p>\n![\"Ted](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3M5B3RZESRM6NKA5SAZMC6OQ4U.jpg\")
Ted Cruz faced a firestorm of criticism when he traveled to Cancun as a deadly winter storm hit his state. Reuters <\/p>\n