Congressman Steve King (R-NY) told Fox News Sunday afternoon he would not vote for another resolution to delay or defund ObamaCare if it meant shutting the government down, and that he was infuriated with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for letting the fight get to a stage at which the government was threatened.

“From the start I thought it was wrong to pursue this policy of threatening to shut the government down over defunding ObamaCare,” King said. “I went along with the votes up until now because I know that John Boehner does not want to shut the government down, and I was assured this was a process to keep the government open. Now we’re down to the last 24 or 48 hours, and it seems we’re closer than ever to the government shutting down. I think Harry Reid should accept the proposal that was made. If he doesn’t I don’t want the government to shut down and I don’t see how I can vote again to any more amending to ObamaCare.”

“We have too many people in our party, it’s a minority, who are following Ted Cruz, and they are tying up the entire Republican party,” King said. “The overwhelming majority of House members would vote to keep the government open. I’m tired of having Ted Cruz call the shots for the House Republicans.”

RELATED: Gregory Grills Ted Cruz Over Defunding Strategy: ‘You Haven’t Moved Anybody’

King said he thought the GOP could have won a more moderated battle.

“We should have been negotiating for the last several weeks on changes we wanted to make to ObamaCare, like in the medical device tax,” King said. “I think we could have gotten that approved, if that had been part of a negotiation.

“But because of Ted Cruz, it was all or nothing. It was either defund ObamaCare or shut the government down and we were locked into that. Now we’re into the final 36 hours, and we have people in our party who live in their own echo chamber. They think everyone wants this done. The fact is, most people, like in my district, are totally opposed to ObamaCare but they don’t want the government shut down. We have to show we can be a governing party and not just responding to small factions.”

Watch the full clip below, via Fox News:

[Image via screengrab]

——

>> Follow Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) on Twitter

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]