Ted Cruz was the main topic of discussion during Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue on the March 21 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The references to Ted came after the Texas senator was seen having an apparent heated exchange with an airline worker in Bozeman, Montana on March 20. Video of the moment in question went viral on Reddit on March 21 when the Reddit user who claims to have posted the video share more details about what went allegedly went down. The poster claimed that Cruz “made thinly veiled threats towards the employment of the people involved” after he missed his flight. Security reportedly had to get involved.
Jimmy has never been shy when it comes to mocking Ted Cruz, so he really went for it when he addressed the situation on his show. “Apparently he missed his flight and then demanded to speak with the manager of the airport a dozen times, to the point where they had to call in security,” Jimmy explained. “He should stay out of airports, right?” He then referred to Ted as “Cancun Karen” and played a clip joking about what the senator must’ve been (inappropriately) saying during the exchange with security.
The reference to “Cancun Karen” and “staying out of airports” dates back to Feb. 2021, when Texas was in the throes of a disastrous snowstorm. Rather than stick around for his state, Ted flew to Cancun to go on vacation. As millions of people in Texas dealt with unlikely cold weather and drastic power outages, Ted was soaking up the sun in Mexico. Needless to say, he got extreme backlash for the decision at the time.
In his tirade against Cruz, Jimmy then flashed back to a clip of the senator from March 8, where he was bragging about how much airline employees loved him. “There’s no way he’s getting spontaneously hugged [in airports]. Can you imagine hugging Ted Cruz?” Jimmy wondered, after playing the clip. “Donald Trump hugs [his son] Eric [Trump] more than flight attendants hug Ted Cruz!” Ted has not publicly commented on the March 20 airport debacle yet.