James Antle of the Washington Examiner highlights an interesting development among Republicans in Washington, D.C.
For the first time since at least 2015, former House Speaker John Boehner is the toast of the town in Washington.
The Ohio Republican is out with his memoir On the House. In both the book and a series of interviews to promote it, Boehner dishes on his party.
On The View, Boehner accused former President Donald Trump of “one of the sadder things I’ve seen in the last 40 years in politics.”
“The president abused the loyalty and the trust that voters had placed in him by perpetuating this noise,” Boehner said of Trump’s claims that last year’s presidential race was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud. According to Boehner, Trump isn’t finished yet. “Here’s a guy who’s unemployed, has nothing else to do but cause trouble,” he said.
Trump got off easy. While Boehner told Late Show host Stephen Colbert that the 45th president was “a little crazy” compared to President Joe Biden (“a really good guy”) and former President Bill Clinton (“the best politician I’ve ever met”), he dubbed Sen. Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh.”
“The most miserable son of a b—- I ever had to deal with,” Boehner said of the Texas Republican.
After years beatings from the Right, the Republican establishment is striking back — against Trump, against the Tea Party, and against the populists who remain convinced they are the party’s future.
Boehner is, for the moment, the most prominent example, but he is not alone. While Trump lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over the weekend, reportedly calling the Kentucky Republican a “dumb son of a b—-” and a “stone-cold loser” at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, Republicans took note of the event’s location: Trump is in Florida, while McConnell remains in Washington, a single vote away from reclaiming his old job as majority leader.