Boehner: ‘I’d Rather Set Myself on Fire’ Than Run for Office Again
Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is leaving no doubt about whether he would consider running for office again, more than six years after he left Washington, D.C. NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Boehner, 71, if he would…
Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is leaving no doubt about whether he would consider running for office again, more than six years after he left Washington, D.C.
NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Boehner, 71, if he would “ever” run for office again.
“I’d rather set myself on fire than to run for office again,” he responded.
Todd said, “The only reason I asked that question is because I expected an answer just like that.”
“You’re a sh*t,” Boehner shot back with a chuckle.
Todd took Boehner’s remark in stride as he said, “I assume I’m getting that as a compliment. I’ll take that as a backhanded compliment.”
Boehner’s appearance comes after the release of his memoir “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” where he took aim at members of what he called the “Knucklehead caucus” — and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who he referred to as “Lucifer in the flesh.”
He wrote in his book that the Texas senator made it difficult to operate as speaker, “Under the new rules of Crazytown, I may have been Speaker, but I didn’t hold all the power. By 2013 the chaos caucus in the House had built up their own power base thanks to fawning right-wing media and outrage-driven fundraising cash.”