Sen. Ted Cruz responded to critics of his 21-hour marathon speech against President Barack Obama's signature health care law by slamming the press, whom he compared to "Hollywood gossip columnists."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to members of the media as he comes out from the Senate chamber after speaking on the floor for more than 21 hours, Sept. 25, 2013. (Getty Images)
The Texas Republican made the comment in response to a question from radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh Wednesday afternoon.
"Theatre is what you were accused of," Limbaugh said. "Others have said you are just fundraising and you are making it look like your doing something substantive but it's just theatre."
"Well one of the approaches that those that who want to maintain the status quo, who want to make sure Obamacare stays funded, who want to avoid any risk — one of the approaches they do is they try to make this all about people, they try to make it all about personality," Cruz said. "Listen, most Americans could not care less about any politician in Washington. They don't care about me. They don't care about anybody else either."
"And what is utterly maddening about all of these reporters, is what do they write about all day long," he continued. "They write about the process. They write about the horse race. They write about this personality or the other.
"They act like they are Hollywood gossip columnists," Cruz added. "Writing about bickering. I mean how many times have you and I read the word 'Republican civil war' in the past week. Because that's what they like to write about."
"I've got an obligation not to my colleagues, but to 26 million Texans to fight for them," said Cruz, later adding that "when the people rise up, the politicians listen."
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