Fox News host Sean Hannity tried to cover for Ted Cruz in a post-Cancun interview, only for the Texas senator to contradict him

• Sean Hannity tried to cover for Ted Cruz after his jaunt to Cancun as Texans went without power.

• Hannity described it as a "quick drop-off trip," but Cruz said he had planned to stay the weekend.

• Text messages obtained by Insider also suggested a longer trip was planned than Cruz had let on.

• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

In an effort to provide some cover for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity on Thursday gave a more flattering yet false account of Cruz's much-derided trip to Mexico.

Cruz "is facing the ire of the mob, the media, for traveling to Cancun, Mexico, with his daughters, to drop them off and come home, as Texas is still addressing the fallout and damage from severe weather," Hannity said.

The outcry began on Wednesday when photos emerged of Cruz traveling to Cancun with his family. After the trip became national news, Cruz issued a statement, which Hannity tried to stick to.

"With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends," Cruz initially said. "Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

While Cruz implied that it would have been just an overnight trip, it turned out he had changed his return flight from Saturday to Thursday. Skift's Edward Russell first reported the news, which was confirmed by the NBC News reporter Peter Alexander.

Though Hannity gave him an out, Cruz went with an amended account of his trip in the interview.

"I had initially planned to stay through the weekend and to work remotely there, but as I was heading down there, I started to have second thoughts almost immediately, because the crisis here in Texas - you need to be here on the ground," Cruz said.

Earlier, Hannity said that he and Cruz, along with Gov. Greg Abbott, had known how severe the cold wave would be.

"I have a piece of this story that nobody knows, that you know to be true and Governor Abbott knows to be true," Hannity said. "And that is I got contact very early in the week from the official meteorologist on my radio show ... and he sent a note to both of you, to you and Governor Abbott. In that note, he said this is going to be far worse than I think others are predicting.

"You got in touch with him; the governor got in touch with him. You took it seriously, and you worked hand in hand with the governor in the lead-up to this, knowing this was all a big possibility," he added. "And this is days before that happened. And you were fully and completely engaged."

Hannity went on to say, "I think you can be a father and be the senator of Texas all at the same time and make a round trip, quick drop-off trip, and come home."

The Fox News host stuck to Cruz's initial narrative even though it was clear that Cruz had planned to spend multiple nights in Cancun but ended up flying back in less than 24 hours amid mounting criticism of his decision to take a trip while millions of Texans went without power and water in freezing temperatures.

Insider also obtained text messages from a group chat appearing to show Cruz's wife, Heidi, proposing and planning a trip to escape the cold.

In the interview, Cruz said that he had been working with Abbott before the storm and that he and Heidi had lost power along with millions of Texans.

"A lot of Texans are mad, are pissed off," Cruz said. "How could it be that Texas, the energy capital of the world, can't turn our lights on and can't heat our homes? A lot of Texans are frustrated. This shouldn't have happened."

For Fox News viewers, the answer to that question has involved wildly misleading claims about renewable energy in Texas.

Hannity went on to praise Texas' separate energy grid, saying it didn't have to "abide by the burdensome regulations of the federal government."

Read the original article on Business Insider