Christian evangelist Franklin Graham said John Boehner’s recent comments are “an embarrassment to our nation” after the former House Speaker described Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.”

“Former Speaker of the House John Boehner shame on you!” Mr. Graham, the 63-year-old son of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook. “You had no business calling Ted Cruz ‘Lucifer in the flesh’ — this is an embarrassment. And it’s an embarrassment to our nation. Then lowering yourself further by calling him a SOB?”

“I’m not endorsing Cruz or any other candidate, but your verbal rant at Stanford is beneath the public office you were elected to hold,” he wrote. “The Bible warns us to watch our tongues, ‘The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body’ (James 3:6).”

During a discussion Wednesday night at Stanford University, Mr. Boehner, who retired from Congress at the end of October, told audience members of Mr. Cruz: “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.”

Mr. Cruz responded Wednesday by saying Mr. Boehner “allowed his inner Trump to come out.”

“When he calls me ‘Lucifer’ he’s not directed that at me, he’s directing that at you,” Mr. Cruz said into the TV news cameras at an impromptu press conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

“The truth is I don’t know the man. If I’ve said 50 words to John Boehner in my life, I’d be surprised,” he added.

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