The push to stop funding Planned Parenthood is dividing the Republicans in the Senate.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) slammed her fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday, over his plans to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding.
“We’ve been down this road before, and it didn’t end well, what’s the strategy for success?” Ayotte said.
She wrote a letter to Cruz on Thursday, asking the Texas senator why he is pushing legislation that the party can’t pass.
“It is abundantly clear that we lack the votes in the Senate to redirect these funds,” Ayotte wrote in the letter.
The New Hampshire senator, who’s up for re-election in 2016, distanced herself from Cruz and his tactics because “it appears there is no chance of achieving a successful result.”
“[I] would appreciate you sharing your strategy for success with all of us before any damaging government shutdown becomes imminent,” she wrote in the letter, published by the New Hampshire news station WMUR.
The government shutdown Cruz led in 2013 caused major blowback for Republicans right before the 2014 midterm elections. Some commentators believe it hurt Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign, the GOP candidate running for governor of Virginia that year.
