Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., bellowed at GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on the Senate floor Thursday and accused Cruz of faking his desire to re-open the government.

"These crocodile tears that the senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take," Bennet said.

"They're too hard for me to take, because when the senator from Texas shut this government down in 2013, my state was flooded," he said as his voice rose to a yell. "It was underwater."

"People were killed. People's houses were destroyed," he said. "Their small businesses were ruined, forever."



.@SenatorBennet yells remarks after @tedcruz speaks -- "These crocodile tears that the Senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take ,... he surfed to a second place in the Iowa caucuses, but of no help to the first responders, to the teachers..." pic.twitter.com/aJxt84Y9R5 — Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) January 24, 2019



Bennet was referring to the shutdown in 2013 that Cruz was credited for starting when he fought Democratic efforts to reduce Obamacare funding. That shutdown lasted 16 days.

Six years later, the government is in the midst of a 34-day shutdown that has no end in sight. Cruz took to the floor Thursday to say Democrats should support a bill to pay federal workers while the government is shutdown.

But Bennet said he wasn't buying Cruz's attempt to fix the problem because of his role in the 2013 shutdown.

"Because of the senator from Texas, this government was shutdown, for politics," Bennet said. "Then he surfed to a second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, [which] were of no help to the first responders, to the teachers, to the students whose schools were closed with a federal government that was shutdown because of the junior senator from Texas."

Bennet also slammed Republicans for their overall posture in the shutdown fight, including their assessment that Democrats want open borders. Bennet called that "gibberish."

Cruz spoke after Bennet to argue that many Democrats have voted for the construction of border wall before and said he has never yelled on the floor the way Bennet yelled at him.

"I will say, in my time in the Senate, I don't believe I have ever bellowed or yelled at one of my colleagues on the Senate floor, and I hope that in my time before me, i don't ever do that," Cruz said.

Minutes later, Bennet spoke again on the floor and said, "I didn't think I was yelling."