ABC Reporter Grills Ted Cruz on Government Shutdown, Cruz Stands Firm

This past Sunday on “ABC This Week,” ABC reporter Jonathan Karl attempted to bait Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) into reversing his stance about the recent government shutdown, but Cruz stood firm.

“You’ve had a couple of months to think about this whole government shutdown strategy,” began Karl. “Now that it’s over, in hindsight, are you prepared to say that it was a mistake? That it wasn’t the right tactic?”

“I think it was absolutely a mistake for President Obama and Harry Reid to force a government shutdown,” responded Cruz, who then added that he blamed the mainstream media for insisting that it was the Republicans who shut down the government.

Karl later insisted that it was the Republicans who required that the Affordable Care Act be defunded as a condition for preventing a shutdown, but Cruz didn’t relent.

“You’ve got conservatives who stood strong and said, ‘Let’s stop the train-wreck that is ObamaCare,’ and you’ve got Democrats,” said Cruz, who went on to blame the latter group for the shutdown. “Repeatedly, Republicans were compromising, trying to find a middle ground. And repeatedly, Democrats said, ‘No compromise. Shut it down.'”

Watch the exchange in the video replayed on Fox & Friends.

More From Fox News Insider: