Peter King: Ted Cruz 'is a fraud'
Washington (CNN) - The government shutdown showdown is getting ugly.
Republican Rep. Peter King said Friday that his Republican colleague in the Senate, Ted Cruz, "is a fraud" who will "no longer have any influence in the Republican Party" after the House votes on a measure that could potentially lead to a government shutdown.
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King made his comments while on his way to a Republican meeting, shortly before the House was set to begin debating, then voting on the bill. The legislation provides funds for the government to stay afloat past the end of the fiscal year on September 30, but only if money for Obamacare is cut out.
Ted Cruz: Obamacare fight 'just beginning'
The idea to tie the president's health care law to the government funding bill was aggressively pushed by Cruz and other Senate conservatives, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Mike Lee, this summer.
The House is expected to pass the bill, which will then go to the Democratic-controlled Senate where the Obamacare amendment will likely be killed. The bill would then be sent back to the House, which would have to decide whether to pass it and keep the government running, or defeat it and possibly see a government shutdown.
King, who's been strongly opposed to the bill, has essentially compared the strategy to a suicide mission.
Read: Rep. King on defund plan: ‘Custer, Kamikaze’
"I hope people will get the message this guy is bad for the party," King said Friday, talking about Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate. King is also a potential White House contender, as he has said he's thinking about running for president.
Asked if the House vote was more of a message to conservatives than to Obama, King said the vote is a signal that the GOP has "to take more realistic and practical approaches."
The congressman has said before that he can start ignoring the senator from Texas after the vote. He reiterated Friday he hopes that's still the case.
"We can't be going off on these false missions that Ted Cruz wants us to go on. The issues are too important. They're too serious, they require real conservative solutions, not cheap headline-hunting schemes," he said.
Read: Cruz tries to make amends with angry conservatives
Cruz angered House conservatives earlier this week when he admitted in a statement that he doubts the Senate has enough votes to pass a government funding measure that also defunds Obamacare. He has nonetheless vowed to keep fighting in the Senate to generate support for the measure.
But with some Senate Republicans already saying they won't support Cruz in the effort, the chances of him succeeding so far appear unlikely.
- CNN's Ashley Killough and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
Cruz was elected to do job, not to position himself to run for president. If he doesn't start doing what he was elected to do we need to have a recall election in Texas.
Ted Cruz and Ron Paul are the only two, honest politicians standing up for what's constitutional and taking on the aristocracy in DC. Dennis Kucinich was the only other person I respect out of the senators and congressmen over the past decade.
Why do we citizens not support someone that's taking on the powers-to-be?? Why should we support Obamacare if it's not good enough for Obama's family or Harry Reid's family or Boehner's family?
I thought that the Law that covered people born outside the US and whose mother was born in the US giving US citizenship to the baby had expired in May 1934. It was US Law 1791 and the last time I looked at it it said that. I was very interested in this law because I was biorn in Ireland in 1932 and my Mother was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1894 and grew up in Galway City, Ireland.
Jeremiah murphy San Francisco.
Ted Cruz is NOT the fraud here. It is the author of the monstrosity of a law. When one out and out lies about what this Obamacare plan would do to be "Affordable" is unacceptable. When is America going to wake up and see it for what it is? It is a road to bankruptcy for the entire nation. Jobs are threatened by the PLAN and only leads to socialism.
There is no such thing as a FREE lunch or healthcare. The taxpayers should be revolting at this for having to foot the bill.
True, Cruz is a fraud, but King would take away all one's rights in the name of security.
Ted Cruz looks a LOT like, speaks like, and behaves like Joe McCarthy, the evil and fraudulent heart of the GOP.
We have had genuinely concerned politicians over the decades, though rare – they do "happen" occasionally. Haven't seen a single one in about the last 5 decades, however. Would be a refreshing change, wouldn't it.
Doubtful that it will occur in the remainder of my lifetime.
So – here's what we do when we encounter elected that fail to represent the American people to prosperity – we impeach them, fire them, prosecute them, and appoint or elect new representatives or senators – because we are the American people that run the nation – and this is what our founding documents say.
When the public sets aside it's partisan politics and remembers that by its most raw existence – we bear the right to exile those that commit crimes in public office – then you will remember what my ancestors died for in establishing this nation.
These that criticize England for its claim to the land that it colonized have the audacity to cause the worst conditions by domestic terror using police or others to harm United States citizens – and it is beyond anything I've seen or experienced in my entire life.
This is not what I want for my children.
It is not lawfully supported.
So – run them out of Washington.
It's our lawful right.
Do it legally – call upon the Pentagon to do it in defense of this nation.
what states does Peter King Think he would win?