Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said Friday that fellow Texan Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R) presidential prospects were damaged by his 21-hour floor speech against Obamacare.
“I think what became clear this week is that he can’t be president and the reason is nobody will follow him, even people within his own party won’t follow him,” Castro said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And so I think in terms of his long term prospects it was fairly damaging.”
The Texas Democrat noted that Cruz’s speech had a polarizing effect. Some of Cruz’s Republican colleagues were vocal about their disapproval: Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) on Thursday accused Cruz from the Senate floor of putting on a “show” instead of working to avoid a government shutdown.
“I think that he wanted to make a big splash and he certainly has,” Castro said. “He’s done something that I think is unusual, which is he’s made Washington worse, he’s made the polarization worse.”
He had tweeted a similar sentiment during Cruz’s speech.
Ted Cruz said he would go to Washington and change Washington. He has — he’s made it worse.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) September 24, 2013
Castro added that Cruz’s stance on the health care law doesn’t encompass the views of many Texans.
“It was really hard to hear Ted speak about representing 26 million Texans when he was giving that talk, because there are millions and millions of Texans who are without health care coverage and who very much disagree with his point of view and who also are looking forward to the chance to get health care coverage,” he said.
