Sen. Ted Cruz's assertion that a large majority of constituents would want their senators and representatives to vote with him to defund Obamacare isn't universally accepted.
And it comes as no surprise that one of those dissenters is a fellow Republican, Rep. Peter King of New York.
Asked by
CNN's Anderson Cooper if the people in his district would agree with Cruz, King said, "No they wouldn't." If fact, he said, the constituents he's spoken to "think he's crazy."
Editor's Note: Should ObamaCare Be Defunded? Vote in Urgent National Poll
The first-term Texas senator is "almost like a medicine man selling goods that he knows are phony," King told Cooper.
Cruz is taking a good cause, the cause of trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and using it for his own purposes, King said.
King has called Cruz a "fraud" and said he is hoping to bolster his own chances either to run for president or become a folk hero to the tea party.
"I don't think we owe any loyalty to Ted Cruz," King said of his statement that Cruz is a fraud.
Cruz spent late summer on a
Defund Obamacare Tour trying to intimidate GOP members of Congress to vote his way with the threat of being "primaried," King said. Cruz had "no regard or respect for us, so why should we be concerned about him?"