Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says that he voted for ex-President Trump in 2020, but now, he’s one of the latest prominent Republicans to speak out against the direction of the GOP under Trumpism following the rioting at the U.S. Capitol in January. During an appearance on Meet the Press over the weekend, Boehner put Trump on blast for his lies about the election and condemned recent moves from some of the ex-president’s far-right supporters in Congress.
Asked about his interactions with extremism-inclined members of Congress during his time as Speaker, Boehner commented as follows:
‘I did everything I could to bring all these members into the Republican Party, into our team, but some of them just didn’t want to come. Most of those so-called Tea Party types frankly became very good Republicans. And on any given day, I had 210, 215 solid Republican votes, but on any given day, I had two or three dozen what I call knuckleheads who wanted chaos, who wanted it 100 percent their way or no way.’
Although Ted Cruz, as a Senator from Texas, was never under Boehner’s direct purview, the former Speaker has made clear that his animosity extends to the Texas Republican.
Meanwhile, reporting recently revealed that Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) had been developing a so-called America First Caucus in Congress that would group far-right agitators together, and Boehner called the proposed coalition — which featured, among other travesties, expressed allegiance to “Anglo-Saxon” political traditions in a planning document — “one of the nuttiest things” that he has ever witnessed.
As Boehner pointedly put it:
‘I can tell you that this so-called America First Caucus is one of the nuttiest things I’ve ever seen. Listen, America is a land of immigration. We’ve been the world’s giant melting pot for 250 years, and we ought to celebrate the fact that we are this giant melting pot. And to see some members of Congress go off and start this America First Caucus — it’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen, and Republicans need to denounce it.’
Those behind the planned America First Caucus have reportedly abandoned their plans after public backlash.
On Meet the Press, Boehner also called out Trump’s incessant lies about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, which the former president has claimed and continues to claim was somehow rigged for Biden. Discussing Trump’s claims, Boehner added as follows:
‘I kept looking for evidence, like most Americans did. Where’s the evidence? How can he keep saying something without providing any proof? And there wasn’t any. And clearly, on January 6, it was one of the saddest days in my life watching a place I worked, watching a place where I and my team did everything we could for that institution being trashed by a mob.’
The mob used Trump’s election lies as an explicit pretense.
Check out Boehner’s interview below:
