Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) criticized Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as a “hypocrite” for his “New York values” attack on his opponent Donald Trump.
King said, “I was born in Manhattan, raised in Queens, went to high school and college in Brooklyn. My father was a city cop for over 30 years. To me, New York values are being patriotic, being strong, not panicking when there’s a crisis and trying to help each other out. With all the fighting we do and all the skirmishing we do, the reality is that New Yorkers can come together when they have to. It was proven on 9/11 and to this day, we lost over 400 cops and firemen on 9/11, we have lost almost 300 service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11.”
He continued, “So it’s a tough group of people and maybe to outsiders they don’t always understand us but when the money’s on the line, the chips are down, New Yorkers are always there. Maybe it’s because we are all thrown together. We have so many different races, ethnic groups, religions, labor unions, business, we have everything. We have to find a way to make it work. Even if we don’t always get along, somehow we learn to tolerate one another and that makes us stronger people.”
“He talks about New York being too focused on money. His wife works for one of the major investment banks, great bank, but his wife works there and he got a $1 million loan and he comes into New York to raise money from New Yorkers, including from Goldman Sachs. These are stories he was behind, when he was at behind the scenes fundraisers and there were gay Republicans there and they brought up the issue of gay marriage, he gives them a wink and a nod saying don’t worry, he’s not going to do anything about it. He doesn’t say this in the Bible Belt. He brought up last night about gay marriage. He’s a hypocrite. This guy’s a hypocrite.”
He added, “There’s also a jealousy there. He’s trying to appeal to people’s worst instincts. The instinct of begrudgery. I always say screw the begrudgery.”
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