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Beto O’Rourke slams GOP over Texas blackout, Internet digs up Ted Cruz's 2020 tweet on California fires

As O’Rourke criticized Republicans for their inefficiency, frustrated users started circulating old tweets by US Senator Ted Cruz

Texans are suffering from a blackout due to the massive winter storms that reportedly left millions without power on Tuesday, February 16. The state’s electrical grid operators had to shut down power throughout the state due to raised demand amid dropping temperature. Beto O’Rourke, a member of the U.S House of Representatives from Texas’s 16th district, took to Twitter to call out “those in power” for letting the public suffer as they “failed” to do their job. 

In a series of tweets, O’Rourke has called out Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his “inaction”, despite the repeated warnings about the impending natural disaster by Energy experts and State House Democrats for years. As O’Rourke criticized Republicans for their inefficiency, the frustrated public soon started circulating old tweets by U.S Senator Ted Cruz, in which he had mocked the Democrats for blackout in California due to forest fires in August 2019. 

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O'Rourke tweeted, "Texans are suffering without power because those in power have failed us. As with Covid, a natural disaster has become far deadlier due to the inaction & ineptitude of Abbott and Texas’ Republican leadership. This didn’t have to happen and doesn’t have to continue. 1/4"

The next tweet read, "While they focused on bathroom bills, “show me your papers” legislation and fighting with sports teams over the Star Spangled Banner, 30 million Texans were left vulnerable to uncontrolled Covid spread, a bungled vaccine rollout and now this “rolling” power blackout. 2/4"

In the following tweets, he has spoken about the leaders who aren't able to deal with the situation to "get out of the way and give the power and resources to local leaders who are fighting with all they’ve got."

On seeing O'Rourke's tweets pointing at Republicans' "failure", people soon started circulating Cruz's old tweets, as they mocked GOP for slamming Democrats during the fire disaster. 

What had Ted Cruz said in his tweets?

Cruz had tweeted at the time, "California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity. Biden/Harris/AOC want to make CA’s failed energy policy the standard nationwide. Hope you don’t like air conditioning!"

His tweet was seconded by fellow Republicans, who also blamed Democrats responsible for the power outage in California. While Dan Patrick tweeted, “This is what happens when the Democrats are left in charge.”, Dan Crenshaw told in one of his tweets, "Alexa, show me what happens when you let Democrats control energy policy"

As Cruz's old tweets started circulating widely, a significant number of social media users slammed him, demanding an "apology" for his comments on Democrats, while the rest asked him to "do his job". 

One frustrated Twitter user shared, "Ted Cruz, your state is SUFFERING! How about you do your damn job?"Another wrote, "Maybe apologize to California for talking shit. change your name it's an embarrassment to the Spanish community." One shared, "That time Ted Cruz claimed California was uncivilized because of power outage during the wildfires. Wonder if Texas is now uncivilized as well since they have no power? #WinterStorm #Blizzard" Another wrote, "Remember summer 2019 Ted Cruz bashed on California. Ca was experiencing an epic state wide heat wave creating power outages around the state. Cruz said it was because of the liberal dems CA was experiencing power issues. I guess what goes around comes around"