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Vanity Fair
Idiots, Anarchists, and Assholes: John Boehner Unloads on Republicans in Post-Retirement Interview
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.
by Tina Nguyen
October 30, 2017 11:04 am
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 hed 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. Everything else hes done (in office) has been a complete disaster, the former Speaker told the Associated Press over the summer. Hes still learning how to be president. 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 merithe was, after all, part of the party's first wave of outsider populism when he was elected in 1994but in over 18 hours of conversation with Politicos Tim Alberta, Boehner, now golfing frequently and ironing his underwear in peace, opened up about his frustration with today's Republican party:
On Trump's impact:
On Ryan's legislative prowess
On the House Freedom Caucus, whose members at times have stubbornly resisted the G.O.P.'s legislative agenda:
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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/john-boehner-on-republican-party