Rep. Peter King Calls Ted Cruz a 'Con Man'

Congressman Peter King (R-NY) had some choice words for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday night following a vote on the House floor. When asked by Breitbart News why he had such harsh feeling toward the junior senator from Texas, King replied, “He’s a con man. He knew this was going nowhere.” 

“He sold a false bill of goods–put pressure on Republicans–said defund Obamacare in the House and it would work through the Senate, and it didn’t,” King added. “He knew it wouldn’t [work]. So we had to listen to him talk about Dr. Seuss for 21 hours.”

King told MSNBC last week he received “vile” phone calls from Ted Cruz supporters as a result of King’s opposition to Cruz’s quasi-filibuster on the Senate floor:

“The vehemence of the phone calls coming into the office. I don’t care, people can call me whatever they want … I haven’t heard such vile, profane, obscene language,” King said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.

This is not the first time King and Cruz have gone at it with one another. Harsh words erupted during Cruz’s opposition to the Hurricane Sandy relief bill and while the New York State GOP invited Cruz to be the main speaker at its annual fundraising dinner in May. At the time, Politico reported: 

Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday brushed off criticism from fellow Republican Rep. Peter King over his decision to headline a GOP dinner in New York later this month – something the Long Island lawmaker charged was inappropriate given the Texan’s vote against a Sandy aid bill.

“The N.Y. GOP extended an invitation to the senator and he is honored to attend. He welcomes any opportunity to share his vision to help spur economic growth and restore principles of restrained spending and limited government to Washington,” Cruz’s press secretary told POLITICO. “The senator fully supported sending appropriate aid for Sandy relief, just not a bill that included billions in spending completely unrelated to aid.”

Earlier this week, King slammed Cruz for fundraising in New York because of his opposition to a Sandy aid bill.

“He went out of his way to attack New York on the bill,” the Long Island Republican told the New York Daily News Wednesday. “It’s a little early to forgive and forget.”

King still hasn’t forgiven Cruz and other Republicans who voted against the Sandy bill, which provides crucial aid to East coast citizens ravaged by the hurricane.

“That’s only a part of it, that’s not the only thing,” King said when Breitbart asked if the Sandy Relief bill conflict and the NY State dinner invite to Cruz is what started his problems with the Texas senator. He later told reporters that Cruz had not called him since Cruz’s 21-hour marathon speech.

“It’s bad policy to be defunding a policy that’s in place by threatening to shut down the government, especially when you know it can’t work. No matter how you look at it, this was crazy. It was a fool’s errand,” King said. He later added, “Everyone knew it wasn’t going anywhere, except for people who showed up at town hall meetings and you had Ted Cruz Republicans making commitments.”