John Boehner seems to be enjoying his retirement.
During a Wednesday evening speaking gig at Stanford University, the former speaker of the house absolutely ripped into his ex-nemesis Ted Cruz, likening him to Satan.
Cruz is “Lucifer in the flesh,” he said, according to The Stanford Daily. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Boehner—who told the crowd they can call him “boner, beaner, jackass”—and wannabe GOP presidential nominee Cruz have a long history of bad blood. Never was the rift between the two so open than during the 2013 government shutdown.
The Texas senator was able to marshal conservatives in the House against Boehner’s carefully crafted attempts to reopen the government—at one point infamously meeting with them at a Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill to plot creative ways to insert a measure to defund Obamacare into one of the deals to reopen the government (never mind that such a proposal was DOA on President Obama’s desk).
In September 2015, Boehner revisited the tumultuous shutdown period in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, following the Ohio Republican’s retirement announcement.
“The Bible says beware of false prophets. And there are people out there, you know, spreading noise about how much can get done. I mean this whole notion that we’re going to shut down the government to get rid of Obamacare in 2013—this plan never had a chance,” Boehner said.
At a Republican fundraiser that same year, Boehner reportedly referred to Cruz as “jackass.”
Boehner has grown increasingly vocal about his criticism of Cruz since leaving office, at one point calling his opposition to a budget deal passed late last year as “utter nonsense.”
And during Wednesday evening’s talk with Stanford history professor David M. Kennedy, the former speaker took an hit his sorely disliked ex-colleague where it hurts the most right now: He praised GOP frontrunner and Cruz’s tormenter, Donald Trump.
The Donald and he, Boehner explained, are “texting buddies” who play golf together on occasion. Moreover, while not praising any of the reality-TV star’s infamously anti-establishment policy proposals, Boehner confessed that he would vote for Trump in the general election—but most certainly not Ted Cruz.
Further adding insult to injury, Boehner applauded Cruz’s other impediment to the coveted GOP nomination: Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “[He] requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends,” the ex-speaker reportedly said, “but he’s still my friend, and I love him.”
