Ted Cruz: Republican Leaders Screamed at Me for Standing on Principle

The Texas senator says his GOP colleagues took umbrage at his filibuster threat

Ted Cruz: GOP Senators Yelled At Us 'At The Top Of Their Lungs' Over Gun Control Filibuster Threat (Huffington Post)

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continued to relish his position as a tea party favorite last week, going out of his way to claim that the actions he's taken to bolster his conservative credentials have made him unpopular with some Republican colleagues.

Making a surprise appearance at the FreedomWorks Texas Summit on Friday, Cruz spoke about the backlash that he, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have faced for leading a failed effort to filibuster any gun control measure to prevent such legislation from being debated on the floor. Cruz boasted about the eventual failure of a range of gun control measures -- including a popular bipartisan amendment to expand background checks -- recalling the "look of shock" on senior Democrats' faces. He then made a claim about the broader divisiveness of gun control.

"I dunno that there is an issue that has generated more heat internally in the Republican conference," Cruz said. "We've had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing up and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at us at the top of their lungs, I mean really upset. They said, 'Look, why did you do this? As a result of what you did, when I go home my constituents are yelling at me that I have to stand on principle.'"

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