While emergency officials continue to search for bodies and survivors from the devastating and lethal flooding in Texas, the Daily Beast is using the occasion to bash a Republican senator.
At least 108 people have died from the natural disaster at latest count, including many children who were staying at Camp Mystic when the floods rushed through Kerr County.
‘In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.’
On Monday, the Daily Beast published a report claiming that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was on vacation in Athens, Greece, as the rescue operations continued in Texas. Cruz and his wife were spotted at the Parthenon on Saturday, according to the report, about 24 hours after reports of the flooding started to surface.
Macarena Martinez, the communications director for Cruz, excoriated the outlet in a statement on social media.
“A bulls**t piece published by a bulls**t 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,” Martinez wrote.
“I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter,” she added.
The Daily Beast updated its article with the statement from Martinez.
The report documented that Cruz returned to Texas by Sunday and indicated at a press conference about the flooding that he was on the phone with emergency officials within hours of the first report of flooding.
“In 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,” said Cruz on Monday.
RELATED: Brian Stelter suggests media partly to blame for ‘warning fatigue’ amid tragic flood deaths
“He was having dinner at the time, it was still early in what was transpiring, and I wanted him to know,” he continued. “I said, ‘Mr. President, from everything we’re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad.'”
Blaze News reached out to the Daily Beast reporters who worked on the article for comment. Political correspondent Farrah Tomazin had no comment but directed Blaze News to a statement from the Daily Beast’s executive editor.
“You asked to go off the record when we asked for comment, which we agreed to believing it was a good faith request,” wrote Hugh Dougherty to Martinez on social media.
“So yes you did explain it, but you didn’t want [to be] quoted by name and omitted to mention that in this post,” he added. “Now that’s changed we have updated our story.”
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