JUST IN: Ted Cruz Appears to Be on a Flight Back From Cancun

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Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the curious decision to visit a resort in Cancun, Mexico Wednesday afternoon, while his home state of Texas is ravaged by catastrophically cold temperatures that have led to at least 24 deaths and millions without power. But judging by a recently surfaced publicly available upgrade list on a Thursday morning United airlines flight, Cruz is making a triumphant return to Houston, where he will surely be lauded with adoring constituents.

Late Wednesday evening, images began to surface on Twitter that appeared to show Senator Cruz in the Houston airport, on a plane, and eventually in a short-sleeved shirt in a warmer climate. Predictable levels of outraged Twitter ensued, though the veracity of the images was not yet confirmed. Since then, however, corroborating evidence emerged showing Cruz leaving his state for a vacation resort during an emergency. The ensuing PR nightmare appears to have led Cruz to catch the first flight home. Reports of a tail between legs have not yet surfaced.

Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman spotted the upgrade list for the United flight from Cancun back to Houston via Twitter:

There is a well-known expression, Rome’s emperor at the time, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned.” Senator Ted Cruz will be damned to let his name to be included in an updated version of that idiom, though “Cruz limboed while Houston froze” has a certain ring to it.