Greta Van Susteren: Give me little behind the scenes. When you see Harry Reid on the floor in the last 24 hours, did you look each other in the face or look away or hi, how are you doing?
Ted Cruz: All the Senators are cordial with each other. They’re not necessarily the warmest chummiest relationships but everyone treats each other civilly.
Greta Van Susteren: That’s pretty — doesn’t sound so civil. I heard on the floor when the time ran out, Senator Harry Reid, it was a waste of time was his response. There was no sort of I don’t agree with you, Senator, but 20 hours and 19.S, pretty amazing. He could have said it that way. He was insulting.
Ted Cruz: Well, you know, may not have been the height of graciousness but look, at the end of the day, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter bickering back and forth between a handful of Washington politicians. Most people don’t care. What matters I think is the substance.
Greta Van Susteren: I think it does matter a little bit and tells the American people, watching sort of a school yard brawl or are we watching people with deep ideological differences and, you know, we’re having a debate and maybe sometimes you can convince or persuade or negotiate and then with the name calling, it is unseemly, I think.
Ted Cruz: Harry Reid made that decision to do that before. He’s ci guess, those of us trying to defund Obamacare anarchists and I think a schoolyard bully and, Greta, I don’t reciprocate and I don’t intend to.
Greta Van Susteren: Senator McCain thinks some ways the Republicans that don’t agree, appeasers. They weren’t insulted by that.
Ted Cruz: The focus that I try to keep throughout the filibuster and throughout this discussion is on the substance of the bill and the point I immediate, look, there’s an extended discussion there when we started to defunding, there were voices, pundits, those in the Republican parties saying we can’t win, we can’t win, we can’t, we can’t win and the more you say that it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. If Republicans turn their guns on themselves and shoot us trying to stop it, it makes it much harder to win. I went through the centuries of all of the battles in the united states, all of the great challenges we have taken on, whether it was the revolutionary or civil war or world war ii or going to the moon or winning the cold war, where the voices of conventional wisdom said it can’t be done and American spirit, when we united, said it could be done.
Greta Van Susteren: How about the phone call you have with the house Republicans yesterday? What was that like?
Ted Cruz: Oh, we have had ongoing conversations with house members for a long time and certainly will continue to do so.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.