On Andrea Mitchell Reports Friday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) claimed “fraudulent” Ted Cruz’s “maniacal crusade” is to thank for rising Obamacare poll numbers.
Mitchell began the show with a panel discussion of the recent NBC News/WSJ poll, where Mitchell and crew gleefully highlighted the Republican negatives—and did their best to make the across-the-board bleak numbers seem like a “clear” indication of the failure of the House Republican budget tactics. (At one point Obama’s negatives were at least mentioned, but then quickly glossed over.)
The discussion eventually turned to public perception of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). To cap off the Cruz critique, Mitchell invited on the media's favorite anti-Cruz Republican, Rep. Peter King (R-NY).
King (who seems to enjoy hate-tweeting Cruz on his free time) gladly took Mitchell’s offer to pile on the senator. After labeling Cruz a “RINO” and “fraudulent from the start,” King really got rolling, smearing him as both a coward and crusader:
Two things. One, he reminds me of the guy in the schoolyard who doesn't have the guts to fight himself. He holds the coats and tells the other guys to carry out the fight. Number two: No one has done more to strengthen Obamacare. Because since he started this maniacal crusade of his, the fact is over the last 10 days, support of Obamacare has gone up 7% in the country. Not because Obamacare is working. Not because it's played out well at all. But because he has given such a bad image to the anti-Obamacare forces. So President Obama and supporters of Obamacare should thank Ted Cruz because he is their biggest ally right now.
Schoolyard bully who “doesn’t have the guts to fight himself,” leading Republicans on a “maniacal crusade.” Thanks for elevating the discourse, Rep. King. And while you’re fretting over those poll numbers, check out America’s sinking view of all of congress, including Democrat leaders and the president in their “no negotiations” stance.
When later asked about the NBC News/WSJ poll, Cruz simply pointed to the inherently slanted sample:
I'll note that that poll was very heavily weighted with an awful lot of Democrats with an awful lot of Obama supporters and 20 percent of the people polled were government workers.
The sheer amount of time and energy the left-wing media devotes to excoriating Cruz tells us all we need to know about how much they perceive him as a threat.
