Fareed Zakaria: Tea Party 'Fundamentally Anti-Democratic,' Will 'Blow the Country Up'

CNN host Fareed Zakaria railed against the Tea Party Friday night, hours after the Senate blocked the House Republican debt plan. Speaking on "Anderson Cooper 360," Zakaria accused the Tea Party of being "fundamentally anti-democratic" and guilty of "an extraordinary act of hostage-taking."

"Instead of accepting some compromise that can get through the democratic process, what they're saying is we'll blow up the country if you don't listen to us," Zakaria said. "We'll hold hostage the credit of the United States, the good standing of the United States and we'll blow it up....it's an extraordinary act of hostage-taking."

Agreeing with Charles Krauthammer's reference to the strategy as "counter-constitutional," Zakaria took it a step further, charging the Tea Party doesn't "understand the workings of democracy."

"They have not been elected dictators of the United States, they have been elected to one house of one branch of the American government," Zakaria said.

Likening the current fiscal state to a "kind of national emergency almost like a war," Zakaria hoped President Barack Obama would just fix the situation unilaterally.

"I hope that President Obama is seriously exploring the possibility of invoking the 14th Amendment," Zakaria said, adding that he thinks the Supreme Court would allow it given the "level of dysfunction."

Watch the full clip below:

(h/t Mediaite)