One of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) most vocal GOP critics in the House said he’d rather meet a grisly end via poison than jump on the Cruz Crew.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) won’t be supporting Donald Trump, either.
“First of all, in case anybody gets confused, I’m not endorsing Ted Cruz. I hate Ted Cruz,” King told MSNBC this morning. “And I think I’ll take cyanide if he got the nomination.”
“I think you are going to see Donald Trump scoring a big victory tonight. I do not endorse Donald Trump. In fact, I actually voted by absentee ballot for John Kasich. I’m not endorsing John, but I voted for him to really send a message,” he continued.
“But I think Trump is going to win big. I know on Long Island, you go through every part of Long Island I’ve been to, people come up to you. They’re talking about Donald Trump.”
King, whose district runs along the south shore of Long Island, noted that “after Wisconsin for a day or so, people were wondering what happened to Donald Trump.”
“Then he held this massive rally on Long Island. Ten minutes from my house. And that really, even psychologically, turned it around again.”
King had endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for president. “With John Kasich, if I thought that John Kasich had a viable chance, I’d come out and endorse him,” he added. “But I want to keep my powder dry because this may go to the convention.”
To get his support, King added, Trump would have to “show that he has coherent policy and he has to show …he has some gravitas and know what’s going on in the world.”
“If we’re talking about Obamacare, he can’t just say that he’s going to replace it with a terrific plan. He’s got to show what he’s going to do on it, exactly what is the systematic methodology going to be to replace Obamacare, and also he has to somehow stop with the attacks on Bush’s policies in such really an irrational way. If he wants to show what he specifically disagrees, fine, don’t say this guy lies and this guy intentionally distorted — you got to get beyond that. You have to show what the subject of differences are, what he would have done, what he’s going to do in the future, what is he going to do about ISIS?” he said.
“What is he going to do with the Russians, for instance, move on Latvia or Estonia? Is it worth sending the American troops in defense of Estonia? But if he doesn’t, what’s that going to do to NATO? Show that he has some comprehension of what’s going on in the world, not just the guys at the end of the bar throwing in remarks.”
King’s beef with Cruz is nothing new on Capitol Hill. After the 2014 primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), King slammed Cruz as a “fraud” and accused the senator of seeking support among “lowest common denominator” voters.
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