If you were anywhere near the internet yesterday, you know the main story was Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz's hilariously catastrophic Cancun getaway--or attempted getaway, anyway--in the midst of a series of freak winter storms that have left at least 30 of his constituents dead.
As usual, the internet's responses to the debacle fell into two camps: outrage, and hilarious dunks on the Senator, including an epic video from comedian Blair Erskine.
Erskine's video sent shivers up people's spines for its darkly hilarious and all too accurate portrayal of the way many Republicans' try to spin their actions when they get caught.
Statement from Director of Communications for Sen. Ted Cruz https://t.co/5cXIkTTZiW— blaire erskine (@blaire erskine) 1613662980.0
In her video, Erskine pretends to be Cruz's Director of Communications giving a statement to television news about Cruz's Cancun trip.
As leaked text messages revealed, Cruz and his wife Heidi took their daughters to Cancun in order to escape the disaster, which has left millions of his constituents without power, heat, water or groceries and rendered many of them homeless due to flooding and fire.
Given the scale of the disaster it may seem difficult to satirize, but Erskine was the woman for the job.
Erskine perfectly nailed the tone of all too many politicians' public statements as she not only explained away Cruz's decision, but double down on it.
"Senator Cruz deserves to relax, unwind, unplug, recharge, like you would a power outlet, or his power grid's going to go out and we can't be having that, ya know, that's too important."
And she perfectly lampooned of the kind of ridiculous logic conservative pundits often use.
"It's funny that, whenever he's here in America and he's doing his little jokes on Twitter, everybody says 'Go away Ted, we hate you,' but then when he goes away to Cancun, everybody says 'Well, where's Ted? Why isn't he doing his little jokes on Twitter?' Now sometimes you just don't know what you've got till it's gone."
On Twitter, Erskine's video left many people absolutely in awe of the perfect satire.
@blaireerskine Perfection.— Bess Kalb (@Bess Kalb) 1613668180.0
@blaireerskine Hahaha his actual DOC’s is looking at their statement, and is now stealing yours, as it’s way better… https://t.co/BPYzddjTQR— Aubrey Thomas (@Aubrey Thomas) 1613663335.0
@blaireerskine Not sure which is funnier: 1) The video or 2) that > 50% of Twitter is going to think this is legit.— jpkmets (@jpkmets) 1613663498.0
In fact, Erskine's video was so perfect several people thought it was an actual statement from one of Cruz's actual PR people.
@RexChapman @blaireerskine People think this is real. Blaire deserves and award for her satire. I’m creating a petition demanding it.— LA Recovery (@LA Recovery) 1613669184.0
@blaireerskine How long before this gets deleted and she issues an apology?— The Beer Nerd (@The Beer Nerd) 1613665840.0
@blaireerskine Really? I missed YEARS of vacations with my DAD, because he had literal and metaphorical fires to p… https://t.co/WQITuEhT0D— Michele - WEAR A MASK - Reece. (@Michele - WEAR A MASK - Reece.) 1613663722.0
@jeremy_akers @MicheleReece6 @blaireerskine SERIOUSLY!?!?! I bought it hook line and sinker because the STUPIDITY L… https://t.co/99PbSLdT6o— Karen Castro (@Karen Castro) 1613684824.0
@MelissaRabb1 @_The_Beer_Nerd_ @blaireerskine She had me fooled until I read the replies. I was about to drive to T… https://t.co/J9p3AyFsTL— Frieda Smith (@Frieda Smith) 1613750086.0
@blaireerskine the fact that people are confused and believe this statement is actually from @tedcruz 's comms dire… https://t.co/XDWwFE1Kb0— MCooperVasilic (@MCooperVasilic) 1613666375.0
Cruz, who blamed his trip on his daughters begging to go to Cancun—an explanation that doesn't at all square with his wife's leaked text messages about the trip—has since said that "in hindsight" his decision to flee the country was "obviously a mistake."