Rips Boehner

Sen. Mike Lee rips Boehner for Cruz comments

By Burgess Everett

An irate Sen. Mike Lee on Thursday said he was “appalled” by former House Speaker John Boehner’s comments about Ted Cruz being the devil, demanding an apology for the “horrible” statement and attempting to leverage the incident into a victory in Indiana.

Calling into Mark Levin’s radio show, the Utah senator unleashed a six-minute diatribe in reaction to Boehner calling Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh” and a “miserable son of a bitch.” Lee is one of just three senators to endorse Cruz in his battle against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.

Lee, who is confrontational in his tactics but generally soft-spoken and deliberative in his remarks, called Boehner’s remarks “really vile stuff” and said he had held his tongue for years out of respect for Boehner's office as a powerful GOP leader. But after reading about Boehner’s comments in Stanford on Wednesday evening, Lee said he was “livid to have him talk about my friend Ted Cruz" like that.

“The fact that he has done this is appalling. And he should be ashamed of himself. And I demand he apologize, “ Lee said. “This is a wake up call to people who are supporting Donald Trump, thinking that he’s the guy that’s going to rail against the establishment. He’s not. He is the establishment. He’s the golfing buddy, the texting buddy of John Boehner. The same guy who praises Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.”

Lee and Cruz were architects of the GOP strategy in 2013 that sought to defund Obamacare in a spending bill. The gambit resulted in a government shutdown as Boehner sought to placate the conservative forces that plagued his reign as speaker.

But even when he was battling with Boehner back in 2013, Lee merely said he was “not a fan” of the Ohio Republican's plans to try an end run around conservatives, which ultimately failed as Boehner went with the failed Obamacare gambit. In an interview then, Lee calmly explained his opposition to Boehner’s plans to avoid a confrontation that eventually provoked a shutdown.

But on Thursday Lee raised his voice to a shout in a stem-winding counterattack to Boehner’s R-rated comments about Cruz. Levin remarked he had never heard Lee so animated, and while Lee admitted he was angry, he also said the controversial remarks offer a chance for Cruz to exploit Boehner’s attacks politically.

“He goes out and calls him the devil. This is wrong. This should be a wake-up call … I speak to my friends in Indiana. Anybody who is thinking about how to vote in Indiana on Tuesday, please, please vote for Ted Cruz,” Lee said. “You can show your support for Ted Cruz and your revulsion for this vile statement that John Boehner has made.”

“I’m grateful to John Boehner. Because John Boehner has exposed the truth … by saying. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, Donald Trump he’s great, I text with him I golf with him. Yeah, Hillary Clinton she’s great. Bernie Sanders, he’s great. But Ted Cruz is the devil.' Why?” he finished as Levin called his passion “commendable.”