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Despite Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz‘s announcement on Wednesday that, if he gets the GOP nomination, former candidate Carly Fiorina will serve as his running mate, many of his fellow party members do not like him at all. So much so that, according to a New York Times columnist, former Speaker of the House John Boehner reportedly responded to a question about fundraising for the junior Texas senator with his middle finger. Whether the story was true remained in question, but if Boehner’s recent comments at Stanford University are any indication, then it’s a good bet the former Ohio representative truly hates the White House hopeful.
Like, really hates him. So much so that, according to The Stanford Daily, when history professor emeritus David M. Kennedy asked Boehner about Cruz, he “made a face [that drew] laughter from the crowd.” And no, Boehner’s anti-Cruz sentiments didn’t end with a mere smirk:
“Lucifer in the flesh,” the former speaker said. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”
Boehner made his personal feelings about Cruz quite clear with his “Lucifer” and “miserable” jabs, but he also stressed his political stance against the second-place Republican presidential hopeful. He admitted that Donald Trump, whom he claimed to be “texting buddies” with, would probably get the party’s nomination in July. If that happens, the ex-politician said he’d vote for the New York real-estate mogul in the general election. But would he vote for Cruz? No, we would not — even if the Cruz/Fiorina team somehow managed to garner the GOP’s favor.
As for the other candidates still campaigning for the presidency, Boehner said he remains friends with John Kasich, even though their relationship “requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends.” Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he opined, has “put up a significant fight,” but front-runner Hillary Clinton “will win the nomination.”
When he first brought up Clinton, Boehner mocked her with a bad impersonation, saying “Oh I’m a woman, vote for me.” This drew an unsurprising “negative crowd reaction” from the Stanford students and faculty in attendance, so the former speaker kissed and made up by noting that “he had known Clinton for 25 years and finds her to be very accomplished and smart.”
(Via The Stanford Daily via Talking Points Memo)