Former President Donald Trump is spitting fire at former Republican House Speaker John Boehner for saying he incited the “bloody” Capitol siege by “shoveling bullsh*t” election fraud claims, The Daily Mail [1] reports.
“Was he drinking when he said that? Just another RINO who couldn’t do the job,” Trump said, responding to the comments in Boehner’s new book On The House: A Washington Memoir.
Boehner lambasts Trump in the new memoir for sparking the Jan. 6 “Capitol siege for nothing more than selfish reasons” and slammed the GOP “whack jobs” who supported the attempt to overturn the election for encouraging “actual terrorism.”
But Trump isn’t the only one Boehner singles out for attention. He also rips Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a new one, describing him as a “reckless a**hole” and describes his battles with fellow Republicans who were offended when he acknowledged that Barack Obama was born in the U.S.
Boehner became infamous for his many battles with Democrats, especially during the Obama administration, but I’m guessing he must breathe a sigh of relief that he’s never had to work with Trump. In his book he offers a particularly stunning rebuke of the former President, writing that Trump’s “refusal to accept the results of the election not only cost Republicans the Senate but lead to mob violence,” he wrote, adding “It was painful to watch.”
In book excerpts obtained by The New York Times, [2] Boehner writes:
“I’ll admit I wasn’t prepared for what came after the election — Trump refusing to accept the results and stoking the flames of conspiracy that turned into violence in the seat of our democracy, the building over which I once presided.”
Indeed Trump repeatedly insisted he won the November 2020 election and baselessly accused Biden of stealing it, even though there’s been no evidence that voter fraud occurred and courts tossed virtually all of the dozens of challenges to the election results that were waged by the Trump campaign.
Watching the riot unfold was a depressing situation for Boehner, and he characterized it as “one of the lowest points of American democracy.”
“Watching it was scary, and sad,” he writes. “It should have been a wake-up call for a return to Republican sanity.”
Few Republicans stood up to Trump, who fumed and stormed about for two+ months, riling up his supporters until the more mentally unbalanced among them conducted a deadly act of violence, and Boehner shreds him for his false claims about the “stolen election.”
“He claimed voter fraud without any evidence, and repeated those claims, taking advantage of the trust placed in him and ultimately betraying that trust.”
Boehner also had sharp criticism for Republican lawmakers who supported Trump’s attempt to overthrow the Electoral College certification on Jan. 6. Republican Senators Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz, along with GOP House members Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Jim Jordan, and many others objected to the certification of President Joe Biden, which had to be delayed due to the siege.
“Some of the people involved did not surprise me in the least,” he writes. “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as a speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”
During his years as House Speaker, Boehner was often a formidable opponent to democrats and often seemed like a thorn in Obama’s side, but he’s intelligent and erudite and unlike far too many Republicans today was tough as nails even if he was being an a**hole while doing it.
So I’m glad his book tap dances all over Trump’s sorry carcass. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.