Rep. King: Obama 'Playing Game' He'll End Up Losing

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has made no secret of his disdain for fellow Republican Ted Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, going so far as to call his strategy to defund Obamacare a fraud.

But he isn't any more keen on President Barack Obama in the battle that has led to a shutdown of the federal government.

Appearing on CNN's "Out Front with Erin Burnett" on Tuesday, King said Obama was taunting Republicans when he said from the White House Rose Garden earlier in the day that Republicans "shut down a whole bunch of parts of the government, but the Affordable Care Act is still open for business."

"The president is playing a game here," King said. "He still is in campaign mode. This is too important for that."

King said he doesn't mind if Obama says he won the battle, but it shouldn't stand in the way of him talking to House Speaker John Boehner to work out a solution to reopen the government.

"If he wants to continue to play games, if he wants to play golf on Saturday, if he wants to say he won't negotiate with Boehner but he will negotiate with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, it's going to come back to him," King said.

"And he's going to not only end up losing — or being dragged down with us — but the government is going to stay shut, people are going to be out of work, and we're going to have real risks here," he said, alluding to members of the intelligence and counterterrorism communities falling under the budget ax.