“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.”


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.

