Former House Speaker John Boehner slammed Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert as a man who “never made any sense,” adding that Fox News hosts made “governing far more difficult” by hosting politicians like him.
“They put Louie Gohmert on TV. It may be great for TV, but everybody in the Congress is shaking their heads wondering why Louie Gohmert would be on TV because the guy never made any sense when he was in the Congress,” Boehner told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning.
Boehner is on a media tour promoting his book, On The House: A Washington Memoir, which is set for release this month.
“Considering the source and his efforts as speaker of the House to break the most important Republican promises, I take his remarks as a compliment. It is nice that he can take time off from his day job as a marijuana lobbyist to offer his insights,” Gohmert told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday in response to Boehner’s comments.
Fox News’s Steve Doocy said during the interview that Boehner is “not afraid to name names” of whom he disagrees with. Co-host Brian Kilmeade followed up by asking if he blames Sean Hannity or Mark Levin for giving airtime to politicians who Boehner said enjoyed being on national television more than working on legislation.
CRUZ ON BOEHNER’S ‘GO F— YOURSELF’ COMMENT: ‘OBVIOUSLY HE HAD TOO MUCH WINE’
“The louder the noise, the crazier of a story, the more audience they picked up, and frankly, they were trying to grow their audience. Listen, I have my differences with Hannity over the years. His style does not lead to governing, and at one time, Hannity and I were, frankly, pretty close. We had a lot of time on the air together, but the outrage isn’t governing. And frankly, I was the speaker, and I’m trying to govern, trying to get things done on behalf of the country,” he said.
Kilmeade pushed back that it is not Hannity’s or Levin’s fault for hosting lawmakers on their shows, and he said Boehner focusing on those issues “diminishes the credibility of your book.”
“My only point was, what they were doing is making governing far more difficult — simple as that,” he said.
Boehner has also been in a spat with Sen. Ted Cruz, which began after reports surfaced in February that Boehner told Cruz to go “go f— yourself” while recording his audiobook, which Cruz pushed back on during the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“You know, yesterday, John Boehner made some news,” Cruz said at the time. “He suggested that I do something that is anatomically impossible. To which my response was: Who’s John Boehner?”
Cruz again took issue with the comment on Saturday, blaming Boehner’s consumption of wine.
“I think he was probably recording at 9 or 10 in the morning, so obviously, he had too much wine that day already,” Cruz said on Saturday. “This guy is a little unhinged.”
In February, Boehner tweeted a photo of himself with a glass of wine, captioned: “Poured myself a glass of something nice to read my audiobook. You can blame the wine for the expletives.”
Poured myself a glass of something nice to read my audiobook. You can blame the wine for the expletives. #OnTheHouse #13Apr2021 pic.twitter.com/5uN709ipOs
— John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) February 25, 2021
Boehner took aim at the Texas Republican again this weekend in an interview with CBS, when he said he doesn’t like to “beat anybody up” but added that Cruz is a “jerk” and accused him of “making a lot of noise” but not being very productive in Congress.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I don’t beat anybody up — it’s not really my style, except for that jerk,” he said. “Perfect symbol, you know, of getting elected, making a lot of noise, draw a lot of attention to yourself, raise a lot of money, which means you’re gonna go make more noise, raise more money — it’s really unfortunate.”
“The Swamp is unhappy. I wear with pride his drunken, bloviated scorn. Please don’t cry,” Cruz tweeted in response on Friday.
