poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201604/3404/1155968404_4868871695001_4868853072001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true “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," former House Speaker John Boehner said of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Boehner: Cruz is 'Lucifer in the flesh' The former House speaker also says that he would vote for Trump, and called the two of them 'texting buddies.' 
 
 When it comes to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, even a few months’ time out of Congress has done little to lessen former House Speaker John Boehner’s contempt for his former Capitol Hill colleague. 
 
 “Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner told an audience at Stanford University on Wednesday night, according to the Stanford Daily. “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.” 
 
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 In fact, Wednesday night was not the first occasion that Boehner has compared Cruz to “Lucifer.” He used the epithet last month during a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida. 
 
 As far as Donald Trump goes, Boehner remarked that he had golfed with Trump for years and that the two are “texting buddies” — a comment Cruz seized on in his requital Thursday. 
 
 “If you want someone that’s a texting and golfing buddy, if you’re happy with John Boehner as speaker of the House and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump’s your man,” Cruz told reporters during a stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Cruz insisted he never “worked with” Boehner and, in response to being called Lucifer, Cruz added that Boehner “allowed his inner Trump to come out.” 
 
 Cruz is notorious for his toxic relationship with his congressional colleagues. It turned radioactive in 2013 when the Texas senator played a pivotal role in shutting down the federal government with his high-stakes attempt to defund Obamacare. 
 
 Republicans were widely blamed for the historic disruption, and Cruz’s colleagues heaped scorn on him as a result. 
 
 The vitriol has waned some, but Trump has gleefully exploited it, maintaining that as the standard-bearer, he can unite the party — unlike Cruz, who has little support among the people who work with him in Congress. 
 
 On Thursday, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) seized on Boehner’s comments and again showed he’s not letting bygones be bygones over the shutdown. 
 
 “Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz,” King said on CNN. “Listen, what John Boehner was most concerned about was Ted Cruz perpetrated a fraud and a hoax when he brought about the shutdown of the government on some kind of a vague promise that he was gonna be able to take Obamacare out of the budget or to end Obamacare.” 
 
 Boehner’s successor Paul Ryan, who has been neutral throughout the primary and will chair the Republican National Convention this summer, said he has a better relationship with Cruz than Boehner did but didn’t necessarily come to the senator’s defense. 
 
 “I have a very good relationship with both of these men,” he said, referring to Boehner and Cruz. “I’m going to keep it that way.” 
 
 White House press secretary Josh Earnest expressed confidence that Boehner was simply being candid when he offered his take on Cruz. 
 
 
 
 “Obviously, Speaker Boehner was speaking based on his own experience,” Earnest told reporters. “I don’t know that he was looking to be helpful for harmful. I think he was just looking to be honest about his own view.” 
 
 In the sit-down on Wednesday night, Boehner was more magnanimous when talking about fellow Ohioan John Kasich. 
 
 The governor “requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he’s still my friend, and I love him,” Boehner said, according to the report. 
 
 On the Democratic side of the race, Boehner said that while Hillary Clinton would win the party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders is a likable guy and the most honest politician in the race. He also apparently impersonated the former secretary of state, saying, “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” while reportedly later noting her accomplishments. 
 
 Boehner’s comments also included a reference to the ongoing FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was at the State Department, speculating on what might happen if the scandal widens. 
 
 “Don’t be shocked … if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen,” the former speaker said. 
 
 Boehner also had some fun with how people botch his name, telling the crowd, “You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything.” 
 
 Nolan D. McCaskill and Rachael Bade contributed to this report. 
 
 

 “You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything,” said former Speaker of the House John Boehner as he took the stage at CEMEX Auditorium on Wednesday evening. Boehner joined David M. Kennedy, faculty director and history professor emeritus, in a talk hosted by Stanford in Government (SIG) and the Stanford Speakers Bureau. 
 
 This joking yet blunt attitude set the tone for the night as Kennedy and the former Speaker discussed topics ranging from Boehner’s upbringing in Ohio to the future of the Republican Party. For the second half of the program, Kennedy opened up the floor to student questions. 
 
 2016 presidential election 
 
 Much of the discussion — and laughs — focused on Boehner’s views on the current presidential candidates. Segueing into the topic, Kennedy asked Boehner to be frank given that the event was not being broadcasted, and the former Speaker responded in kind. When specifically asked his opinions on Ted Cruz, Boehner made a face, drawing laughter from the crowd. 
 
 “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 described other Republican candidates as friends. In particular, he said he has played golf with Donald Trump for years and that they were “texting buddies.” 
 
 His friendship with Ohio Governor John Kasich, however, was a little more ambiguous. 
 
 “[Kasich] requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he’s still my friend, and I love him,” Boehner said. 
 
 Boehner for the most part accepted Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, though he did express his surprise at the candidate’s success. While he did not praise Trump’s policies, the former Speaker did say he would vote for Trump in the general election if he becomes the Republican nominee. He said he would not, however, vote for Cruz. 
 
 When it came to the Democrat primaries, Boehner asserted his belief that although Bernie Sanders has put up a significant fight, Hillary Clinton will win the nomination. While stating that he disagreed with Sanders on all the issues, he also called Sanders a nice guy and the most honest politician in the race. 
 
 On Clinton, Boehner’s reviews were more mixed. Early in the talk, he impersonated Clinton, saying “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” to a negative crowd reaction. Later, he added that he had known Clinton for 25 years and finds her to be very accomplished and smart. 
 
 Boehner also speculated about surprises that could come closer to the Democratic National Convention if Hillary Clinton’s emails became a larger scandal. 
 
 “Don’t be shocked … if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen,” Boehner said. 
 
 Time in office 
 
 Kennedy also spent a large portion of the talk asking the former Speaker about his time in office and his relationship with President Obama. Having been elected to office 13 times — a number which he was quick to clarify with Kennedy — Boehner said he had learned a lot from previous Speakers, including Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. 
 
 Throughout the talk, Boehner frequently referenced the Freedom Caucus as the “knuckleheads” and “goofballs” in Congress. When Kennedy asked about the Democrats in Congress, Boehner asserted that both parties have their own inner divisions. 
 
 “The thing that’s different about Republicans and Democrats is that [Democrats] do their fights behind closed doors,” he said. “Republicans are way too independent for that.” 
 
 Although he talked about the challenges of working with a partisan, gridlocked Congress, Boehner reflected positively on his relationship with Obama. Although he acknowledged that the two disagree, Boehner said the two get along well. 
 
 Boehner described his days in office as fairly repetitive and very busy. He would wake up around 5:30 a.m., walk to Starbucks for coffee, then return home to do some morning reading. He would go into the office around 8 a.m., and “then it was like a sprint all day long.” According to Boehner, however, he always made sure to go home by 10 p.m. 
 
 “I think my proudest accomplishment is walking out of there the same jackass I was 25 years before,” Boehner said. 
 
 In speaking of his retirement, the former Speaker said he didn’t regret a thing. As a Catholic, Boehner said it was particularly moving to meet Pope Francis when he spoke to Congress. Boehner resigned the following day. 
 
 Student reactions 
 
 When the floor was opened for student questions, questions ranged from asking Boehner to push for the censure of former Speaker Dennis Hastert to his opinions on the future of the Republican Party. 
 
 Brandon Camhi ’16 asked Boehner about how he would prevent more socially progressive conservatives from becoming disillusioned with the Republican Party. 
 
 “If I were running for president, I’d be running on things that unite Republicans,” Boehner said. “These other issues are just going to keep coming up, and the Democrats know where our soft spots are.” 
 
 According to Camhi, this was as much as he expected the former Speaker to be able to answer his question. 
 
 “He said as much as he’s going to say, and what he said is true,” Camhi said. “The Republican Party has to move away from divisive social issues.” 
 
 More generally, Camhi was surprised by how candidly Boehner spoke. According to Alex Lee ’18, who attended the smaller reception with Boehner after the event as a member of the Stanford Speakers Bureau, this same candor was present in his personal conversations as well. 
 
 According to Lee, it was also interesting to have a minority political opinion being represented on Stanford’s predominantly liberal campus. 
 
 “I could [feel] the tension in the room when Boehner said certain things, namely claiming that Clinton was leveraging her gender or discussing South Carolina bathrooms,” Lee said. 
 
 At the end of the discussion, Kennedy re-focused the talk by asking Boehner who his political heroes were. In his answer, Boehner re-emphasized his own relatively moderate stances within the Republican Party. 
 
 “Well you know I’m a big fan of Ronald Reagan,” Boehner said. “But I love all these knuckleheads talking about the party of Reagan. He would be the most moderate Republican elected today.” 
 
 Contact Ada Statler-Throckmorton at adastat ‘at’ stanford.edu.
– Ted Cruz and Donald Trump don't have to wonder whether they'd get John Boehner's vote in the general election. Trump, whom Boehner calls his golfing and texting buddy, is the lesser of two evils and would surely win his vote, Boehner says. But when speaking of Cruz, Boehner got downright blunt: He's "Lucifer in the flesh," he said during a talk at Stanford on Wednesday, per the Stanford Daily, echoing a similar comment last month. "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." But Boehner didn't save his crude words just for Cruz; he also called himself a "jackass." John Kasich, meanwhile, "requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he's still my friend, and I love him," Boehner adds, per Politico. Boehner says Bernie Sanders is the most honest politician in the race but stands no chance against Hillary Clinton. That's not to say she's guaranteed the Democratic nomination. "Don't be shocked … if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen," he says, referring to the FBI investigation into Clinton's private email use. (Cruz just named his running mate.)