On CNN, Sean Duffy, Peter King Double Down on Ted Cruz Attack

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) doubled down on their attacks on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) over the fight to defund Obamacare in the upcoming Continuing Resolution.

According to a transcript CNN provided to news outlets including Breitbart News, Wolf Blitzer asked Duffy whether he thinks the Senate “which is Democratic-controlled, is — does not stop funding ObamaCare, you will allow the government to remain in business, is that what I’m hearing?”

Duffy responded by arguing that he thinks the Senate already likely has a deal in the bag.

“So, Wolf, for all I know, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are going to sing Kumbaya together,” Duffy said. “They’re going to find an agreement, as they have a filibuster over in the Senate. They might negotiate this thing out and send us the package in the House that works for us. I don’t know what they’re going to do.  And listen, I think Peter King and I can’t figure out how the Senate behaves as House members, nor can America.”

Blitzer then turned to King for a response.

“Well, actually, I — I basically agree with Sean,” King said. “I mean, you know, we’re on the same page.  Neither of us — neither one of us wants the government to close.  We’re going to do all we can to keep it open and I would just say if anything good comes from all of this, when — when Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee fail in the Senate next week, maybe, finally, we Republicans will have ended their influence.  It’s — we, as House Republicans, should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us. 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.”

Tweets from King and Duffy were prominently featured in a series of mainstream media hit pieces on Cruz, including one in the Huffington Post that, as Breitbart News demonstrated, contained demonstrably false information.