The GOP isn’t what it was, in House Speaker John Boehner’s view. Asked at a conference about what’s going on with the Republican Party, Boehner cut off the question by saying, “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
“When I was speaker, and I was having a rough week, Trump would call me up, pat me on the back, cheer me up,” Boehner said during an on-stage interview at the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan. “We played a lot of golf together.”
He admitted he was surprised when Mr. Trump was elected president — “Really? I never quite saw this,” he said. He then quipped, “The two most surprised people in the entire world that night (Election Night) were Hillary Clinton — and Donald Trump.”
Out of office, Boehner has spoken with similar frankness on other occasions. He’s referred to GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh,” telling one audience, “I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch.” He also said that everything Donald Trump has done in office “has been a complete disaster,” except foreign policy.
Boehner, once a critic of marijuana legalization, is now sitting on the board of a pot company.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
