Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday placed responsibility for the government shutdown on his own party.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” King disagreed with colleague Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) on the GOP’s strategy to link Obamacare to a continuing resolution to fund the government.
“I’m talking about Ted Cruz, who basically was saying that if he defunded Obamacare he could manage to both keep the government open and defund Obamacare,” King said. “The fact is, it was done in the House, and the government is now closed and Obamacare is going forward. This was a strategy that never could have worked.”
“We are the ones who did shut the government down,” he later added. “Charles Krauthammer called it the suicide caucus. The Wall Street Journal said they were kamikazes. You don’t take the dramatic step of shutting down the government unless you have a real strategy and it has a chance of working. It’s never had a chance of working.”
But despite his opposition to the shutdown, the New York Republican said he would not sign a discharge petition in order to bring a “clean” continuing resolution that does not defund Obamacare to a vote.
“It’s not going to go anywhere,” King argued. “The Democrats are not bargaining in good faith. There’s no way in the world you’re going to get 25 Republicans to go on that.”
