Walker criticizes Boehner’s slam on Cruz

Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) said Friday that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was wrong to insult Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) earlier this week.

“Well, I think it’s just wrong,” Walker told host Hugh Hewitt on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” that morning after hearing of Boehner’s alleged attack.

{mosads}“I don’t know Sen. Cruz as well as I know some of the governors, [but] I’ve grown to like and admire him quite a bit on the campaign trail,” he added of his rival for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination.

Boehner reportedly called Cruz a “jackass” during a fundraiser in Steamboat Springs, Colo., Wednesday evening, according to The Daily Caller.

Walker said on Friday that such language is counterproductive to GOP interests regardless of who utters it.

“No, it doesn’t at all, particularly at a time when so many Americans, rightly so, are frustrated that we can’t get things done in Washington,” he said when asked if such language helps the Republican Party.

“There is an urgent sense that they want leaders in Washington to actually follow through with campaign promises they made on the campaign trail,” Walker said.

“That’s why there is a growing frustration, for example, that they haven’t put a bill on the president’s desk to repeal and replace ObamaCare once and for all,” he added.

Walker added that the national media often misinterprets this hunger for sweeping political change as rage rather than resolve.

“I think the one thing that is interesting [is that] some in the national media think it’s anger, and they talk about some of the candidates, that it’s anger,” he said.

“I don’t,” he countered. “I think it is a sense of urgency, that Americans are urgent.”

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.), another 2016 contender, also leapt to Cruz’s defense during an interview with Hewitt aired after Walker’s.

“I think it was a huge mistake,” he said. “It’s not exactly going to do anything to help John Boehner in his leadership role.

“To have John Boehner or any of the Republican establishment speak disdainfully of any of us, is frankly, is something we’d all welcome and be delighted to hear,” added Huckabee.

The remarks come as Walker, Huckabee and Cruz wrestle for attention in one of the most crowded GOP presidential fields in recent memory.

The latest RealClearPolitics average of national polls has Cruz in fifth place, Walker in sixth and Huckabee in ninth out of 17 Republican White House hopefuls.

This story was updated at 5:55 p.m.