When caught several lies about the government shutdown and the debt ceiling on ABC’s This Week, John Boehner lost it and had himself a little angry meltdown.
Video:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
There were a several parts of this interview Boehner visibly lost his cool. On each occasion that the Speaker lost his temper, he was lying.
STEPHANOPOULOS: He has not, perhaps, but I take it from your answer that you’re not prepared to schedule a clean bill on government funding.
BOEHNER: There are not the votes in the House to pass a clean CR.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you sure that’s true? The Democrats say they have 195 Democrats who have already signed a letter saying that they would vote it. 21 Republicans, 21 House Republicans have said they are for it, as well. And Democrats are confident, you add those Republicans to the Democrats, a few more would come along and they have the votes.
BOEHNER: The American people expect in Washington, when we have a crisis like this, that the leaders will sit down and have a conversation. I told my members the other day, there may be a back room somewhere, but there’s nobody in it.
…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But Mr. Speaker, this is clearly not what you want. I want to go back to several points you’ve made about this over the last few — here you were right after the election with Diane Sawyer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOEHNER: It’s pretty clear that the president was re-elected. Obamacare is the law of the land.
If we were to put Obamacare into the CR and send it over to the Senate, we were risking shutting down the government. That is not our goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: So right there, you say that’s not your goal. You don’t want to put Obamacare on the CR. You did it.
BOEHNER: George, I have made it clear to my colleagues. I don’t want to shut the government down. We voted to keep the government open.
(CROSSTALK)
…
STEPHANOPOULOS: They’re saying it’s at risk because of your refusal to pass a clean debt limit. There have been some reports–
BOEHNER: We’re not going to pass a clean debt limit increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Under no circumstances?
BOEHNER: I told the president, there’s no way we’re going to pass one. The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit. And the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us.
On the three occasions in the transcript above Speaker Boehner was lying. He told other basic Republican lies about the ACA during the interview, but his defense of his own behavior was built on lies. Each time Boehner lied, he got angry and his voice changed.
The Speaker knows that he is lying. The votes are there in the House to pass a clean CR. There is video evidence of Boehner saying repeatedly that he did not want to shut the government down. There is also evidence that enough Republicans would join with Democrats to support raising the debt limit.
John Boehner is a total mess right now. He is defending a position that he doesn’t really hold, with lies that are impossible for anyone to believe. This interview was a train wreck. The only thing that the American people got to see was that Boehner is desperate to hold on to his speakership. The Speaker will do, say, and threaten anything to stay in power.
Boehner has thrown the bogus Republican position of compromise out the window, and shifted to straight threat mode. The stress is getting to Boehner. Here is a man that is cracking up right before our eyes. Rep. Boehner’s angry outbursts can’t hide the fact that he refuses to sacrifice himself in order to save his own party. With each day that this crisis drags on, the odds that Republicans will lose the House next year increase.
John Boehner is a man on the edge, and the looming debt ceiling deadline may push him over.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
