{"id":12182,"date":"2016-04-29T08:01:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T15:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/former-speaker-boehner-on-cruz-lucifer-in-the-flesh\/"},"modified":"2016-04-29T08:01:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T15:01:34","slug":"former-speaker-boehner-on-cruz-lucifer-in-the-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/former-speaker-boehner-on-cruz-lucifer-in-the-flesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Speaker Boehner on Cruz: ‘Lucifer in the flesh’"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WAYNE, Indiana<\/strong> \u2014 Former House Speaker John Boehner unloaded on Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz during a talk to college students, calling the Texas senator \u201cLucifer in the flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a town hall-style event at Stanford University Wednesday, Boehner called front-runner Donald Trump his \u201ctexting buddy,\u201d but offered a more graphic response when asked about Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cLucifer in the flesh,\u201d the former speaker said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments were first reported by Stanford\u2019s student newspaper.<\/p>\n

Cruz, campaigning in Fort Wayne, Indiana Thursday ahead of the state\u2019s May 3 primary, responded by saying Boehner was letting his \u201cinner Trump come out\u201d with his remarks. He attempted to turn the criticism into a slam on Republican front-runner Donald Trump before a campaign stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Boehner in his remarks described Donald Trump as his texting and golfing buddy,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cSo if you want someone that\u2019s a texting and golfing buddy, if you\u2019re happy with John Boehner as speaker of the House and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump is your man.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, Cruz joined forces with tea party conservatives in the House in triggering a partial, 16-day government shutdown over demands to undo President Barack Obama health care law. There was no chance Obama would agree to such a step, and Republican leaders like Boehner saw the move as a fruitless effort that only hurt the GOP politically.<\/p>\n

Two years later, it was the same House conservatives who challenged Boehner\u2019s leadership, and the speaker decided to step down rather than allow a very public fight.<\/p>\n

Boehner\u2019s successor, House Speaker Paul Ryan, said at his weekly news conference Thursday that he has \u201ca much better relationship than that with Sen. Cruz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to help unify our party,\u201d Ryan said, when reporters pressed him on Boehner\u2019s comments. \u201cI have a very good relationship with both of these men, and I\u2019m going to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz told reporters Thursday that he had never worked with Boehner who stepped down as speaker in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth of the matter is I don\u2019t know the man,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cI\u2019ve met John Boehner two or three times in my life. If I have said 50 words in my life to John Boehner, I would be surprised. And every one of them has consisted of pleasantries, \u2018Good to see you Mr. Speaker.\u2019 I\u2019ve never had any substantive conversation with John Boehner in any respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz said he was rebuffed by Boehner when he asked to meet with him during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

Cruz said Boehner\u2019s comments reflect his frustration with Americans who stand with Republicans who want to hold members of Congress accountable for their campaign promises to repeal Obama\u2019s health care law and pursue other conservative goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen John Boehner calls me Lucifer, he\u2019s not directing that at me,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cHe\u2019s directing that at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Erica Werner and Donna Cassata contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/sbauerAP and find more of his work at http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/content\/scott-bauer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT WAYNE, Indiana \u2014 Former House Speaker John Boehner unloaded on Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz during a talk to college students, calling the Texas senator \u201cLucifer in the flesh.\u201d Speaking at a town hall-style event at Stanford University Wednesday, Boehner called front-runner Donald Trump his \u201ctexting buddy,\u201d but offered a more graphic response when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":12183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12182"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}