Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) thinks Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) should sit down and shut up if he isn’t able to get Obamacare defunded.
King, along with Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), appeared on CNN‘s ‘The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer‘ on Thursday night. The two Congressmen discussed Cruz’s fight to defund Obamacare — a battle that King thinks is a lost cause.
But at the very least, the failure of Senate Republicans to defund Obamacare could have a silver lining, King added. Namely, ending the influence of Cruz and fellow Tea Party Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“We, as House Republicans, should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us,” King said. “He should stay in the Senate. He should keep quiet. If he can deliver on this, fine. If he can’t, then he should keep quiet from now on and we shouldn’t listen to him.”
King said a strategy to defund Obamacare was a “kamikaze” mission, accusing the Cruz of “carrying out a fraud” in claiming it’s possible to defund President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare legislation.
“To me, this is not the proper venue for that. It makes no sense at all. We know we’re going to lose and again whether it’s Custer, whether it’s kamikaze or whether it’s Gallipoli or whatever, we are going to lose this and we have so many winning issues against the President, I think it’s a wing within our party led by people like Ted Cruz who have been really, as far as I’m concerned, carrying out a fraud with the people by somehow implying or even saying this strategy is going to win,” King said. “They know it’s not going to win. And now it’s over to them at the Senate after tomorrow. We’ll see what they do, either put up or shut up.”
Earlier on Thursday, Cruz pledged to do whatever it takes — including staging a filibuster — to defund the Affordable Healthcare Act.
“I will do everything necessary and anything possible to defund Obamacare,” Cruz said.
This piece has been updated to include new information.
