Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's comments that the government shutdown in 2013 was a "suicide mission" by Republicans aren't "beneficial."
"I like Paul Ryan, he's a good man," Cruz in an interview with the Tea Party News Network. "I will say I don't think it is beneficial when Republican leadership throws rocks at conservatives — at conservative activists across this country."
Cruz calls it a "lie" that is "simply not true" that Republican shut down the government.
Here's what Ryan wrote in his book via the Washington Post:
In short, the strategy our colleagues had been promoting was flawed from beginning to end. It was a suicide mission. But a lot of members were afraid of what would happen if they didn't jump off the cliff. . . . The shutdown wasn't a disagreement over principles, or even politics. Rather, it is proof of what happens to a party when it's defined primarily by what it opposes, instead of by its ideas.