John Boehner insults Ted Cruz, upsets supporters
House Speaker John Boehner shocked supporters with in insult at Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, reportedly calling him a “jackass” during a Colorado fundraiser.
The Daily Caller, citing two people who attended the Steamboat Springs event for GOP Rep. Scott Tipton, reports Boehner dropped the “insult” saying the the presidential bid “keeps that jackass” out of Washington.
“I about fell on the floor,” a woman who attended the Wednesday event tells the Daily Caller. “To build coalitions to work together in Washington, D.C., you don’t start it out by calling your colleague a ‘jackass.'”
Another attendee, businessman Ed MacArthur, was fuming.
“I don’t think it’s terribly speaker-like, and I think it kind of goes against everything that [former President Ronald] Reagan ever said about disparaging Republicans,” MacArthur, the president of Native Excavating, tells the Daily Caller.
“It’s becoming very disturbing to me that we can’t have good, polite conversation,” though he added that he believes the Ohio Republican has “got the right to say it.”
It isn’t the first time Boehner’s taken a shot at Cruz at a GOP gathering, the Dallas Morning News reports, noting at a Midland, Texas, event in May, the Speaker flipped the bird at Texas Republican Party Chairman Tom Mechler when asked for his thoughts on Cruz’s presidential bid.
The Morning News reports a Boehner aide later said it was just a joke.
Boehner is likened to Mitch McConnell and doesn’t seem to take lightly to Cruz’s criticisms of GOP leadership in Congress. More here
[…] with the comments from John Boehner, calling Cruz a “jackass,” Cruz refused to retaliate before talking about his criticisms of Mitch McConnell and the GOP […]