Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Thursday that Republicans in Congress are resentful of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee’s (R-UT) fundraising for an organization running ads against incumbents in the party.
Asked in an interview with with radio station KFYI’s Mike Broomhead whether he considers Cruz and Lee part of the Republican “team,” McCain said his colleagues are not happy about attacks coming from an outside organization with the tea party senators’ support.
“We’re on the same team, but I can tell you what is resented amongst Republicans,” McCain said. “And that is that Senator Cruz and Senator Lee are raising money for an organization that is running ads attacking Republican senators.”
In the government shutdown’s aftermath, Cruz told National Review’s Robert Costa that he’d like to see Republicans who opposed his effort to shut down the government in order to defund the Affordable Care Act held accountable at the ballot box. Cruz also reportedly told colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he wouldn’t renounce the attacks on Republicans coming from the Senate Conservatives Fund, an organization that endorsed him.
Listen to McCain’s comments courtesy of KFYI, at around the 16:00 mark:
