Former John McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace told Morning Joe guest host Donny Deutsch that Ted Cruz was being “intellectually dishonest” in his mission to shut down the government in order to defund Obamacare, a strategy she felt was tantamount to lying to his supporters at the cost of the GOP’s national ambitions.

“I watch Ted Cruz up there and I say, ‘Is he not getting the memo from Christie as far as what’s getting you elected going forward?'” Deutsch said. “This ‘party of no,’ this anger, ‘I’m strong, you’re a chicken, I’m strong, you’re a chicken’—who is that talking to? It’s so tone deaf. Party of no, let’s kill Obamacare—versus, you watch what [Chris] Christie’s doing: time after time, decision after decision, moderate, moderate, moderate. Nicolle, am I missing something?”

“The problem with what Cruz is doing is it’s intellectually dishonest,” Wallace said. “[Cruz] was also asked at that event, ‘Why don’t we impeach President Obama?’ And he said, ‘Because we don’t have the votes.’ The true answer, the intellectually honest answer: ‘Because he’s not committed an impeachable offense.’ Ted Cruz is doing a whole lot of fearmongering and lying to the voters. He’s presenting an untruthful case.”

“The reason we’re going to lose this debate about defunding Obamacare is because we don’t occupy the White House,” Wallace said. “We don’t have the ability to pass laws and then sign them. The best way to win this fight is to elect a Republican president.”

Watch the full segment below, via MSNBC:

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