Rep. King: Paul, Cruz Will Use Cantor Loss to ‘Stop Gov’t from Functioning’

Representative Peter King (R-NY) warned on Morning Joe Wednesday morning that the Rand Paul/Ted Cruz wing of the Republican Party would use House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) surprise defeat last night to push a far-right agenda bent on shutting the government down.

“My concern is a lot of things are going to be dead and pushed aside,” King said. “I’m concerned that the Ted Cruz supporters, the Rand Paul supporters, are going to use this as an excuse to basically stop the government from functioning. Thank god there’s no debt ceiling bill coming up. Thank god there’s no way to shut the government down in the next few months, because I think we’ll get bogged down in those side issues. I think we’re going to see basically the status quo over in the next six months.”

RELATED: DNC Head: Dave Brat Win Shows Tea Party’s ‘Taken Control’ of GOP

“What Ted Cruz did last year was suicidal,” King said, alluding to the Cruz-engineered government shutdown that cost the GOP mightily in the polls last October. “I hope that doesn’t become party policy. So we can’t allow Eric’s defeat last night allow the Ted Cruzes and Rand Pauls to take over the party, or their disciples to take over the party. Because this is not conservative to me. Shutting down the government down is not conservative.”

Watch the clip below, via MSNBC:

[Image via screengrab]

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