The former House Speaker spends most of his time on the golf course, but he's still stewing over the state of the Republican party.
In 2015, then-Republican House Speaker John Boehner announced that he was retiring from Congress in the middle of his term, surrendering his position as the third-most-powerful politician in America to
Paul Ryan and high-tailing it back to Ohio to smoke cigarettes and play golf. At the time, Boehner's abrupt resignation seemed like an acknowledgement that heād failed as Speaker, unable to corral a growing ultra-conservative insurgency in his caucus. In retrospect, though, it appears he dodged the biggest bullet in American history:
Donald Trump. With Ryan struggling to stay in step with the president, and the Republican-held government scrambling to pass any sort of meaningful legislation, Boehner's time as speaker seems downright tranquil in comparison.
Despite his remove, Boehner has been following Trump's ascendance with a critical eye. āEverything else heās done (in office) has been a complete disaster,ā the former Speaker
told the Associated Press over the summer. āHeās still learning how to be president.ā And as Politico
discovered in a long-form interview with Boehner, the Ohio Republican is still haunted by the idea that he paved the way for Trump's takeover of the G.O.P. That idea may have some meritāhe was, after all, part of the party's first wave of outsider populism when he was elected in 1994ābut in over 18 hours of conversation with Politicoās Tim Alberta,Boehner, now golfing frequently and ironing his underwear in peace, opened up about his frustration with today's Republican party:
When I ask Boehner whether the Republican Party can survive this, he cuts me off. āThere is no Repā.ā He stops himself. āYou were about to say, āThere is no Republican Party,āā I tell him. He shrugs. āThere is. But what does it even mean? Donald Trumpās not a Republican. Heās not a Democrat. Heās a populist. He doesnāt have an ideological bone in his body.ā So who, I ask, is the leader of the party? āThere is nobody,ā he says.
On the House Freedom Caucus, whose members at times have stubbornly resisted the G.O.P.'s legislative agenda:
āThey canāt tell you what theyāre for. They can tell you everything theyāre against. Theyāre anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. Thatās where their mindset is.ā
On Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Mark Meadows:
āHeās an idiot. I canāt tell you what makes him tick.ā
On Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Jim Jordan:
āJordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate ⦠A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.ā
āIdiots,ā āAnarchists,ā and āAssholesā: Boehner Unloads on Republicans
Boehner nailed that post-retirement interview. True then and true now. What do you think?