The Republican senator, who was on a planned family vacation, did not return to his state until 72 hours after the deadly disaster, which his spokeswoman said was as quickly as possible.

Amid catastrophic flash floods in central Texas over the 2025 Fourth of July holiday weekend, a rumor spread online that one of the state's U.S. senators, Ted Cruz, continued to sightsee while on vacation in Greece the day after disaster struck his constituents.

Cruz was captured queuing up to visit the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, on Saturday afternoon local time, after Texas authorities had already announced 24 deaths from the catastrophic flash floods in the Texas Hill Country and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had signed a disaster declaration to aid the response.