U.S. Sen Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, isn’t known for bombastic language and fiery floor speeches, but Thursday he ripped into Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about the government shutdown.

“I seldom, as you know, rise on this floor to contradict somebody on the other side,” Bennet said during a floor speech. “I have worked very hard over the years to work in a bipartisan way with the presiding officer, with my Republican colleagues, but these crocodile tears that the senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take.”

Cruz took the floor ahead of Thursday’s failed votes on two different bills to reopen the government and urged Democrats to vote for a bill to appropriate the money needed to pay federal workers during the shutdown.

That bothered Bennet because the Texas Republican led a charge to shut down the federal government in 2013 over funding for the Affordable Care Act. That 16-day shutdown coincided with the aftermath of a deadly flood that killed eight people in Colorado, and Bennet said the government’s closure delayed relief efforts.

“People were killed. People’s houses were destroyed. Their small businesses were ruined forever,” Bennet shouted from the Senate floor. “And because of the senator from Texas, this government was shut down for politics.”

Bennet went on to imply that Cruz used the 2013 shutdown to raise his profile ahead of his run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

“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,” Cruz said after Bennet finished. “And I hope in my time before me, I don’t ever do that.”

Bennet shot back that, unlike Cruz, he never called someone a liar on the Senate floor. Cruz famously accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying to him during an extended tirade in 2015.

Bennet also denounced President Donald Trump, saying he “wants $5 billion to build some antiquated medieval wall that he said Mexico would pay for. This is a joke.”

Cruz, for his part, said Bennet and other Democrats opposed the wall merely because of Trump. “They really, really, really, really don’t like this man,” Cruz said. “But just because you hate somebody doesn’t mean you should shut the government down.”

The spat between the two senators came as the divided Senate defeated competing Democratic and Republican plans to end the 34-day partial government shutdown.

The Associated Press also contributed to this report.