Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear mocked Sen. Ted Cruz after Cruz amplified a week-old photo implying Beshear was touring Europe amid a winter emergency. Beshear said he had been leading Kentucky’s emergency response and noted the image was taken a week earlier. Reporters and local outlets confirmed Beshear had traveled with a Team Kentucky delegation to the World Economic Forum and returned to Kentucky to give briefings. The exchange recalled Cruz’s 2021 Cancun controversy and followed reports of his own recent travel to Laguna Beach ahead of a separate Texas storm.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear Mocks Ted Cruz After Senator Amplifies Old Photo Claiming Beshear Was Abroad During Winter Emergency
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) fired back at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after Cruz amplified a social-media post suggesting Beshear was touring Europe while parts of Kentucky faced a severe winter storm.
Cruz retweeted a post from the Kentucky Freedom Coalition — adding only a "thinking" emoji — that showed Beshear and his wife in front of a church overseas. The Coalition’s post, from an account followed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), claimed: "The liberal media went wild when Ted Cruz wasn’t in Texas for the major freeze a few years back. Well, Kentucky is in a declared emergency and @AndyBeshearKY is touring Europe. The media won’t say a word though."
Beshear’s reply was blunt: "Sorry for missing this earlier, @tedcruz. Been busy leading my state’s emergency response all day. From Kentucky." His response noted that the photo was taken a week earlier and that he had been managing the state's response.
Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake added context, writing that the photo was a week old and that Beshear "gave a briefing in Kentucky today." Local outlet WKYT reported that Beshear had spent the previous week abroad with a Team Kentucky delegation, attending the World Economic Forum and meeting business leaders in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.
Why This Resonated
The exchange revived memories of Cruz’s 2021 backlash after he flew to Cancun during a brutal Texas winter storm that left millions without power or water. Cruz returned to Texas within 24 hours and apologized, calling the trip "obviously a mistake."
This week also brought scrutiny of Cruz’s own travel. A Texas political strategist posted that Cruz was spotted on Jan. 20, 2026, on a flight to Laguna Beach while Texas braced for an arctic cold front and a rare ice threat. A Cruz spokesperson told KXAN the trip was "scheduled weeks in advance" and said he would return before the storm hit; Cruz later posted that he returned to Texas the day before the storm arrived.
Social-media skepticism surrounding Cruz is not new: in 2023 he retweeted an image that appeared to show a shark swimming on a flooded Los Angeles freeway, a post later questioned for accuracy.
Sources: Mediaite, Washington Post, WKYT, KXAN, The Hill.
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