Even if he's become increasingly reviled by members of his own party, Sen. Ted Cruz still had the support of Crossfire co-host S.E. Cupp on Wednesday for his insistence on defunding the Affordable Care Act.
"What Ted Cruz is doing is standing up for millions of people around the country -- and certainly in his district back at home -- who want Obamacare repealed, delayed, stopped," Cupp told co-host Van Jones and panelists Emily Miller and former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA). "That is not represented in Congress, and that's why Ted Cruz is a hero."
"How is that not represented?" an incredulous Perriello asked.
"Because there are so many sort-of flip-floppers and weaklings in the House and the Senate who don't have the backbone that Ted Cruz does," Cupp responded. She did not identify which GOP lawmakers she felt fit that description. But according to Politico, several Republicans did not have a problem criticizing Cruz over his alleged inability to help the party out of the legislative stalemate he provoked.
"Ted Cruz is supported by a small faction of the American people," Perriello countered, prompting Cupp to respond, "That is not true."
Neither Cupp nor Miller, the senior opinion editor for the conservative Washington Times, responded to Perriello's allegation that the Republican numbers in Congress have been bolstered by political gerrymandering, an argument supported by a Sept. 26 New Yorker report linking GOP members who are supporting Cruz's crusade with districts that have been manipulated into becoming increasingly white, rural and conservative.
Miller challenged Perriello's point, noting that over the past two weeks, Republicans have pushed through five separate votes calling for the law to be delayed and for a medical device tax to be stripped from the law, which she said proved there was majority support for repealing the law, commonly known as "Obamacare."
"So then why are you afraid of a vote on the House floor -- up or down -- about the bill?" Jones asked Miller.
"There's no fear," Miller answered. "The point is, there's no leverage."
"You say you're a majoritarian movement, but you don't believe in majority rule in the House of Representatives," Jones told Miller. "Why is that?"
"Why would they give up their leverage?" Miller asked in response.
Watch the discussion, as aired on CNN on Wednesday, below.
