Praise for John Boehner

Former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that he “greatly” admires Speaker of the House and Ohio Representative John Boehner. 

“He is a great pubic servant,” said Bush. “He left at the apex of his time in service to his country with the Pope speaking to Congress. I think people are going to miss him in the long run because he’s a person that is focused on solving problems.”

Carly Fiorina shared a similar opinion: “I think every leader has a season, and I think John Boehner’s season was coming to an end, and he understood that. And I hope now that we will move on and have leadership in both the House and the Senate that will produce results. I think leaders produce results, and I think Republicans are quite frustrated having worked very hard to restore historic majorities to the House and a majority to the Senate that there haven’t been a lot of results.” 

Other lawmakers and politicians have stepped up to praise Boehner for his surprising decision to step down. Paul Ryan, while assuring the press that he would not be running for Speaker, called Boehner “selfless.” Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that he is “a very fine person,” adding “I don’t know if I’ll miss him. It depends on what comes next.” Pelosi believes Boehner’s decision is “a sign of the disarray in the Republican party.” 

John Boehner was a cheerleader for Bush’s campaign, urging him to run for presidency and mentioning to Jay Leno in 2014 that Bush would make a “great president.” When asked about the effects of Boehner’s resignation on America’s conservatives, Bush replied, “We’ll see how it plays out…what we need is a conservative president that can work with Congress.” 

“We wouldn’t have these problems if you had a president that actually would commit to passing a budget, would commit to…repealing Obamacare, reforming our taxes,” said Bush, hinting that he would be that type of president.