President Barack Obama will speak during Republicans' retreat in Baltimore this month. Obama to address House GOP

President Barack Obama will address House Republicans next week at their annual retreat in Baltimore, deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton said Tuesday afternoon.

It’s a show of bipartisanship after a year rife with tumult in the relationship between the president and the minority in the House. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana have taken swipes at nearly every one of the White House’s priorities — ranging from sweeping health care overhaul to stimulus legislation.


Obama will address House Democrats during their policy retreat in Washington on Thursday, then he’ll travel to Baltimore to speak to House Republicans next week. It’s not clear what will be on the agenda, but these retreats are usually reserved for planning out the year’s legislative agenda.

But even as news emerged that Obama will speak to House Republicans, Cantor took a jab at the president. On rare occasions when Republicans were invited to the White House, Cantor said, Republicans were paid “lip service while the cameras were on, only to completely rebuff those ideas afterward.”

“It is important to ask whether the president plans to meet with Republicans, or speak to them,” Cantor said in a statement.