Dear Commons Community,

The reports of the disarray of the Republican Party have been well-documented during this presidential nomination cycle.  Donald Trump has GOP elders scratching their heads as to what to do.  They are hoping that he will not have enough delegates by the time of the party’s convention in July so that another candidate will emerge with the nomination.  However, the second candidate right now is Senator Ted Cruz, who is not exactly beloved among his colleagues in Washington.  Peter King made that perfectly clear earlier this week on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe“ and jokingly threatened to kill himself if Cruz wins the nomination.

 “I hate Ted Cruz, and I think I’ll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination,” said Rep. Peter King (R-New York).

While Cruz has rubbed many of his Republican colleagues the wrong way, King has long butted heads with the Texas senator, who voted against a bill to provide aid to victims of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. 

“If Ted Cruz had prevailed, my constituents would be homeless,” King said the following year. 

When Cruz teamed up with conservative members of the House to shut down the government in a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, King declared: “[Cruz] should keep quiet.”

On Tuesday, King said he voted by absentee ballot for John Kasich in the state’s primary, but said the move was more about sending a message since the Ohio governor didn’t have “a realistic chance” of winning. 

“I want Donald Trump to know that if he wants the support of Republicans, he’s got to get more substance,” King said. “He’s got to really learn what he’s talking about and can’t just be talking off the top of his head and making reckless charges.”

Substance indeed!

Tony