Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is teaming up with John Boehner, the conservative nemesis ousted from the Speaker’s office for cozying up to Democrats, for an Ohio fundraiser on May 30.
Punchbowl News, which reported the fundraiser, noted “if you’ve listened to Speaker Mike Johnson recently, there is some John Boehner influence poking through.”
Boehner, who was infamously chummy with Barack Obama, was ousted in October 2015 amid a conservative mutiny over Boehner ushering through Democrat priorities and violating the Hastert Rule to pass spending legislation over the opposition of a majority of his own party. Roughly two dozen Republican members, led by then-Rep. Mark Meadows, indicated they would vote against Boehner in a “vacate the chair” resolution, which led to Boehner resigning.
Yet Johnson has arguably gone even further than Boehner in appeasing Democrats — and in a much briefer tenure.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has described Johnson’s “three betrayals,” specifically, Johnson funding Biden’s spending policies — at even higher spending levels than the omnibus bill last passed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — forcing through a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) extension without a requirement to require warrants before spying on Americans, and his foreign aid package with Ukraine money.
Johnson’s actions even won him the support of 163 Democrats earlier in May after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) forced a vote to vacate the chair — a level of support that even Democrat-friendly Boehner lacked during his tenure.
The former Speaker — known for openly weeping — cried when delivering a gushing speech commemorating Republican foe Pelosi during a ceremony for the unveiling of her official speaker’s portrait.
He then added with a laugh, “If you couldn’t tell, my girls are Democrats.”
The former speaker’s advocacy for liberal policies did not stop upon his resignation from Congress. In 2021, when asked on CNN if gun control would be a “top priority” were he Speaker again, Boehner expressed hope that Republicans and Democrats will find “common ground” and affirmed it would be top priority “if” he were still Speaker.
Boehner has repeatedly bashed Donald Trump for “bullshit lies,” telling CNN Trump “abused the loyalty and trust that his voters placed in him.”
He has routinely blasted conservatives, calling popular Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) – who along with the rest of the Ohio Republican delegation will also take part in the May 30 fundraiser – a political terrorist and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) a “jerk,” “Lucifer in the flesh,” and a “reckless asshole.” He also used his gossipy tell-all memoir to badmouth Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, among others.
In 2018, Boehner joined the board of Acreage Holding to promote the use of marijuana, a year later becoming chair of the National Cannabis Roundtable, a marijuana lobbying organization.
“My thinking on cannabis has evolved,” Boehner tweeted — Washington-speak which mirrors Johnson’s justification for flip-flopping on funding Ukraine and warrantless surveillance.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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