YouSaid · the spoken record

John Boehner

lines on the record: 62
first: 2021-04-29
most recent: 2021-04-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Was just a regular guy that had a big job. And all of a sudden asked me this morning, I give a rotary speech and asked me what I was most proud of over the 25 years I was in Washington. I said, well, that's pretty simple. I walked out of there after 25 years, pretty much the same jackass that walked in. I never wanted to be somebody. I just wanted to be me. And I've watched people over there get an ounce of power and turn into somebody that you've never even recognized before. I was never going to let that happen to me. And I'm just a regular guy. I had a big job and tried to do my best every day. Nice to people along the way”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went to Catholic grade school, Catholic, high school, Catholic University. It was an older boy. And having a pope there doesn't get any better than that. In 1995, after I sent the first letter out, somebody in the press got a hold of the letter. And there was an article in the Cincinnati newspapers about me inviting the Pope to address the joint session of Congress. My mother called. First, my mother never called me. Never. So that was the first start. My mother called me and she said, John, when the Pope accepts, I'm there. Understand? I got the message loud and clear.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it never happened before. And here's the pope, you know, they had the Catholic Church, but the head of state, the head of the Vatican. And I just thought it would be, I thought would be a good thing to do. But finally, Pope Francis accepted my invitation. And after he left that day, my phone was ringing, Democrats, Republicans, House Senate, everybody was thrilled to death. And I thought to myself, you know, I don't know. I've been here 25 years, and this might be the happiest day I've seen here. And I was going to leave it at the end of 2015. I was going to announce it in November. But I thought later on that afternoon, I thought, well, hell, it's not going to get any better than it was today. I'll just do it tomorrow. So that's how it happened. Pope did a very nice job. He was very gracious and have some great stories in the book, Pope Stories.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, I'm not. Like I said, I've got red wine. I've got cigarettes every once in a while. Have a glass of bourbon. You know, I don't need the cannabis”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I thought, I'm going to do a little research here. And I started looking into the medicinal use of cannabis, kids with seizures, soldiers with PTSD or chronic pain problems. And I got down here in Florida, and everybody and their brother, older folks, want to talk to you about cannabis because they've got all these aches and pains and arthritis. And so I thought, you know what? I'm going to do this. I knew it would make news. I didn't realize it would be one of these sentinel moments in the history of the cannabis industry. Which apparently it has been. Yeah, it's been really, really interesting to watch this industry evolve.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is quite an evolution, but you know, you learn a few things along the way. One, this idea that marijuana is a gateway drug, which is what I was led to believe early in my career. Over time, I found out that just really wasn't a fact. And then, you know, when you're a public official, elected public official, your ears are pretty tuned to what's happening at home and on the ground. And I saw state after state after state legalizing the use of cannabis in some form. And, you know, by the time I left office, I thought to myself, hey, I drink red wine, I smoke cigarettes. Somebody wants to have a joint. What the hell do I care? And then a couple years later was approached to serve on the board of this cannabis company.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was never going to be around there as some old guy. I just wasn't. I made my decision early in my political career that I wasn't going to be one of those old guys tottering around the Congress who didn't know where he was or who he was. And so, you know, I served 25 years. I was 66 when I left. And I'm very satisfied. I wouldn't frankly change anything about my career. And I have one ounce of remorse or regret about how I left and went out.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, anyway, my point is that if I were in DC, I'd be talking about principles, principles, principles, and I'd be looking for ways to enunciate those in ways that the American people could identify. Frankly, what I did most of my political career, it's frankly, it's time for those in Washington to get back to”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's pretty straightforward to me. Republicans have to go back to the principles of the Republican Party. You know, we're the party of fiscal responsibility, the party of free and fair trade. And you can get on the whole long list of what it means to be Republican. And we need to get away from all the personalities and the interest groups and start talking about what we believe in as a party. I happen to believe that, you know, two-thirds of America are our audience in terms of attracting votes. And I think the principles of being a Republican are sound. They just have to go back and continue to do it.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David, most of the so-called Tea Party types became good solid republic. Now, there are some of them who became what I'll call knuckleheads, the my way or the highway caucus. They wanted it all their way or they weren't going to play ball at all. And, you know, I'm sorry, but that's just not the way our country works. But Donald Trump was a symptom of the political, the breakdown in our political system. He's just a symptom of it. Just like AOC and some of her squad are continuing symptom of what's going on in our political discourse these days. I mean, oh, you go out there and call for defunding the police. I'm sorry, but the world doesn't work that way. Both parties are going through this.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't live in Georgia. I don't really know. What you raised if that's why I asked them inside now, but listen, I've been involved in enough election disputes. I used to be in the House Administration Committee. We used to look into election disputes. And, you know, I tell you what, there were some places around the country that had local election officials. I was appalled. Now, I don't know, again, I don't know what the system is in Georgia. trying to have greater accountability by the election officials. It was a good idea how they do it. That's their issue.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so there were a lot of different things that went on in this last election. So, of course, the state houses, we're going to take a look at the election and try to figure out, all right, how do we make this better? You know, this Georgia law, when you look at it, they really didn't. They really didn't do much of anything. And this outrage about the Georgia law, I'm just still scratching my head because a lot of people are talking about it who know none of the facts. And I just anyway, it's a normal process that's going on.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, listen, every state legislature, and I was a member of the Ohio legislature in the 80s, but after every election, you know, you learn things. You find holes in a system or things that don't work very well. And clearly, with the pandemic, there were a lot of changes to how votes were cast. And some of them caused by court, some of them caused by the court.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there are a lot of votes in somebody's career. And, you know, Jeremiah, I catch some votes that some of my constituents or maybe some of my colleagues weren't happy with. But as a result, you're out of the leadership. I think it's crazy. But she, frankly, won handled it.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know her very well, and this is she's a rock solid conservative republic. She's just not crazy And, you know, there's a lady who did what she had to do, what she felt was right. And, you know, some people are going to punish her.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And while people may not like the selection of federal judges that the president put forward, I thought they did a very good job with the judges. I thought, frankly, the overall of our tax code was going to bring more economic growth. There are a lot of good policies. The administration put forward. And frankly, given as much as I know Joe Biden, love Joe Biden, the fact is the Democrat Party that he became the nominee of is far to the left of where Joe Biden is. And I'm afraid all those good policies were going to get thrown under the bus. And so, you know, I held my nose and did what I did.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I said, but Annapolis now turned into a nightmare. It's time for some people, time for us to speak out. And I watched the election. I watched what the president did in November of December. I kept hearing all these claims about election fraud, but I never saw a piece of evidence. I kept looking. Where's the evidence? Never saw it. And frankly, on January 6th, there are a lot of people went to Washington. At his urging with all that nonsense that he kept putting out there, which was just not true. Now, I think he abused the trust and loyalty of the people who voted for him by standing up there for several months making these invalid claims. And so This mess. But I do think that he has partly, mostly, I don't know, pick a name for it, responsible for what happened on the 6th.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I only could watch it for about an hour. It was, I was angry, I was upset and mad. And I just couldn't watch it because, you know, I spent more than half of my career working in the capital. My whole team worked in the capital. And, you know, this is where we did the nation's business. And to see what was happening was just one of the darkest days in American history. And several days later, I sent an email to what they call Boehnerland. All my former staffers. And there were about 500 of them who got this email, but I had made a statement maybe six months earlier when asked a question about the state of the Republican Party. And I said, I think Republicans are taking a nap. And so in this email, I reminded people I had said this.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, he's trying to figure out a way to hold the party together. And you got traditional Republicans. You've got the more Trump aligned Republicans. And at some point, there's going to be some reckoning here. And so we'll see how we do it.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, listen, those who are in office and trying to govern have a very difficult job. And the last thing I want to do is to be some has been, some Monday morning quarterback making my suggestions about what they've done or what they should do, only making their job that much harder. And so listen, Kevin's a good guy. I've known him for 30 years. I knew him when he was a staffer on the hill before he went back to California for the State House. But he's got his hands full. All the leaders have their hands full given the state of politics today.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Her problems are going to happen before her if she's gone because I think as this year goes on, she's going to have very difficult time moving almost anything through the floor. And we got to listen, we got 50-50 Senate, almost a 50-50 House. And, you know, partisan things don't happen in an environment like this. And so if they want to get some things done, they're going to have to figure out how to work for the Republicans to move legislation to help the country.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not at all. The challenge is there's no obvious heir apparent on the Democrat side. You know, lawyers the same age as Pelosi, Cliburn's even older. I don't think they'd like to be in play, but I don't think they're in play. So as you get past those two, it's going to be a wide open referral in terms of who that next person could be.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mean Dingo was one powerful guy. And frankly, one well-liked guy. And Waxman had been waiting and waiting and waiting for Dingo to retire and to leave because he was the number two guy on the committee. And so when Nancy became speaker, Waxman all of a sudden announces a challenge to Dingley. Nobody thought Waxman had a prayer when they said, Oh, well, find out Waxman won the internal election in their caucus, which told me that Nancy must have given the nod, the wink, or whatever, not only for him to run, but to get him elected as well.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, she was the first woman speaker, but more importantly, as I say in the book, she might be the most powerful speaker in my lifetime. I mean, she's done a good job of holding her caucus together. We'll see how long that lasts because she's going through over the last couple of years and these next couple of years. She's gone through what I went through in 2012, 2013. 2014, that era with the Tea Party and the knuckleheads she's starting to have her challenges from the far left. But she's done a very good job. I tell a story in a book about Henry Waxman challenging John Dinko.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. Well, you know, the back of my book are a list of Bain arrests. That I would say a lot, my staff start calling them Boe And there's a whole list of them back there, but one of them is it doesn't cost anything to be nice. And, you know, I don't care Democrat Republican, even some of the knuckleheads. That was nice to all of them. And, you know, a Midwest guy. Midwest folks tend to be friendly. And so anyway, it was always nice to Nancy Blozy. She was always nice to me. Again, we didn't agree on a whole lot from my policy standpoint. Another Boeism. You can disagree without being disagreeable. And so Nancy and I have a nice relationship. One way had the chance to work together. She had good staff. I had good staff. Frankly, our offices had a very good relationship with each other.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Go off together one time. I'll never forget the morning. I announced my retirement. I get back to the office. And there's a whole stack of phone messages. That's what used to happen. And top almost from George W. Bush. I called him. And he wanted me to come down Texas so he could whip my butt on the golf course. But the second one was from President Obama. So I called him. He said, Bayner, you can't do this. You can't do this. We got to do this. We got to do that. We got to do this. We got to do that. You can't leave. So, Mr. President, guess what? I'm leaving.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, listen, we are about as different as any two people you're going to find. You know, his education versus my education, how I grew up and how I grew up, my business background, his background. And so you couldn't find any people more different, nor could you find people who philosophically were on polar opposites. He was president. The American people didn't care whether he was a Democrat, not as a Republican. They expected that we would work it out. We'd figure it out. And so I worked frankly overtime developing my relationship with the president. I was very respectful, very straightforward. We had a few bumps along the way. But we've had a good relationship then. We have a good relationship.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I went in there the way I used to go in there, the right wing press would go crazy. Oh my God, Boehner's at the White House. What's he going to give away to Obama? And how the left-wing press would go crazy on Obama going, oh my God, here's Boehner. He's going to roll the press. And then, you know, they're going to hound everybody that the president and I know or work with until they ferret out what the hell we actually talked about. Really, it was very difficult to just sit down with the president and try to resolve a few there.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You have no time to get a pass before everybody knows about it. And people are poking holes in it and people are taking sides and the noise being turned up. So the speed at which people get news is also influencing this. But here's the real problem today. Both parties are being held hostage by the loudest voices in their party. And on the Republican side to be the, what I call the Trumpers, then you've got the progressives on the far left. Now, if Joe Biden literally sat down with Mitch McConnell to work out, I don't care any of that. My God, the far left would go crazy. The far right would go crazy. It would be hilarious to watch. But they're all being held hostage. It's really unbelievable.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ever got 30 years ago, I was pushing people or pulling people into one of two corners. And on the far left and the far right. And today, because there's so much news, people get to choose where they get their news. Well, where do they go? They go to places they agree with, reinforcing the divide in the country. And so, and there's another factor, and that is the speed at which people get news. Deb, do you remember back in the old days, you know, there being an article every once in a while in the Sunday paper about politics, maybe in Chicago, a tribute to you every couple days there'd be some political article. But today, everything's instantaneous. And so, you know, you can cut a deal on a piece of legislation, come to an agreement, but you don't have”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Today it's a lot worse. Members, not many members live in DC with their families. They don't spend as much time in D.C. And so members don't know each other as well as they used to. But having said that, you know, if people were there for the right reasons, they can find a way to work together. Now there is a complication now that there wasn't for most of my tenure, and that is all these outside pressure. You know, talk radio became a really big thing in the 2000s, maybe the late 90s. Then all those cable news channels became nothing but political pundits 24-7. And then the internet comes along and all the social media platforms. And all of a sudden, all this information that the American people are getting, a hundred times more than they...”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't know that the members know each other as well as they did, and especially with what's happened with COVID. And, you know, they're not together. They're not in committee meetings. They just don't have their relationships that they used to have. Now, you know, all that started to break down about 1990.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Northern Minnesota who just lost in 2020, but Colin was Blue Dog Democrat. He had different ideas about agriculture than I did, but it didn't matter. We trusted each other. We did a lot of work together. But on any given issue, I had members on both sides of the aisle that I can work with.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And Jeff was a great guy. Joe Lieberman and I did all kinds of education things together for disadvantaged kids. We co-chaired a dinner. First of us Kennedy and I, then it was Lieberman and I. And then after Lieberman left, it was Diane Feinstein, who roasted his dinner for about 15 years, raising money for poor kids in the district of Columbia. But I was served on the Agriculture Committee for many years. And so Jesse Helms, Al Heflin, they're a host of characters on the Senate side. Now, on the House side, there was an endless dream. When you get to the House Agriculture Committee, Charlie Stenholm was the chairman for a while, good guy, did a lot of work with him, Colin Peterson.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Listen on the education and workforce issues George Miller, big liberal from California, Teddy Kennedy, we had great relationships. But Judd Gregg and I did a lot. He was part of the four of us, put this bill together.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Frankly, a good one to bring more accountability to what was happening in the classrooms. Work closely with Ernie Duncan at the time, who was head of the Chicago school system, trying his best to bring more accountability into the classroom. It's doable. It's very doable.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think it's possible. I think it would probably take a little more courage to do it now as opposed to 20 years ago. But I was in all kinds of heat for a while because I was working with Ted Kennedy and George Miller. And my Republican college just could not fathom how I could work with those guys. But I told George and I told Teddy, I said, listen. If we get worried about this group and that group, we're never going to get to an end. If we keep focused on what's in the best interest of our kids, we will resolve this. And I have to say in about once every day to remind them, we have to say focus on the kids. And as a result, it was all about the kids. And it enabled us to get to a”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wild, I'm sure he didn't like it, but you know, when somebody's your friend, they deserve, and you should, you should be, you're required to tell them the truth. And I did.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't watch news on TV, so I'm not really sure what he said over the last four or five years. I really don't even have a clue. But, you know, working with Newt, it was a really great guy, very intellectual. But working next to a tornado. Never knew what was going to fly out of there. You know, I spent most of my time cleaning up Newt's pronouncements. And getting off the back of Air Force One after a funeral in Israel when he went over with Bill Clinton. I get a whole long list of missteps that had to be cleaned up. But listen, he was a hell of a leader, really a hell of a leader. Well, I had to look him beyond the eye. I think you could led the team as far as you can lead. Stamping up. That was not easy to do, but somebody had to be open up front not.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Couldn't get the vote to be speaker in 1999, and so he left at the end of 1998. But the members were pitched. This was the Bill Clinton impeachment that they thought the leadership had mishandled, which I say in the book we did. And they wanted somebody's hit. So Newt left. They still were angry. They tried to get army, tried to get delay, missed them both narrowly. But boy, they got me. And the pro earmark crowd led the way in getting rid of me, all right? And so, you know, I was in the wilderness 1999, 2000. I had to start all over. And, you know, in 2001, I became chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. I worked closely with Ted Kennedy and No Child Left behind. Bunch of other bills. And in 2006, when delay stepped down, I ran for majority leader and beat one Roy Blunt, who just announced his retirement.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I thought I told the members, if you find a way that's fair, that's open, I'll consider it. Because again, there's no reason to leave all these decisions to the administration. Congress ought to have some role here. Now, they could rewrite the authorization bills in a different way, but that was too much like work. But nobody ever presented a plan that made any sense at all.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People paying the member for an ear mark, but a couple members go to jail. And then by the time I became the minority leader, I had stumbled across all kinds of smelly activities, not illegal, but who got the ear marks and how much people got. Frankly, the leaders took most of the money and the chairman took most of the money and the members got crumbs. I don't think it was pathetic. And so when I became speaker, I just made it clear in the opening day rules package, there were going to be no more earmarks. There have been no earmarks over the last 10 years, 11 years. And so they're going to bring them back. It's just a matter of time before it blows up in somebody's face once again because there's just not enough transparency and openness. Terms of how this is all dealt with.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I fought for banning earmarks almost from the time I got there. And it started in my primary election in 1990s. Somebody at some event, some meeting asked me about earmarks. And I said, if you think my job is to go to Washington and rob the federal treasury on your behalf, you're voting for the wrong guy. I meant it. I said it. I went to Washington. There were all these bills chock full of earmarks. And then over time, you know, in earmark in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with it. Somebody's got to decide how we're going to spend this money. But over time, it was just one example after another of really what I'll call wasteful spending in many cases. And then you began to realize over time that there was some corruption here.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Rusty was a great guy, good member, well-liked, hell, I love the guy. Knew how to work across the aisle. He really didn't even have to. But, you know, when these things start to unfold, you don't know who's in the middle of them. And it wasn't until this House post office scandal had erupted that it became clear in the investigation that Brosby got caught up in this thing. And then, you know, once and all was over and done with, it was pretty clear to me that Rossi was living under a set of rules from the 1950s when he first got involved in politics. Charlie Mangle, same thing. He was New York City, but basically followed the same rules and never changed. And the rules over time, obviously, have changed significantly.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are a lot of poker games that were played with stamps. And under the post office regulations, you can't sell your stamps back to the post office. But this post office, they would buy your stamps back. So if you won big in the poker game the night before, you can go down to the house post office and cash your stamps in, and now you've got real money.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Both sides of the aisle, but you know, I went there to do something. I didn't plan on being a big reformer of the institution. But when you saw how pathetic the institution was being run, it was one thing after another, a house bank scandal, house restaurant scandal, house post office scandal. Never been an audit of the house's books in its history. And so, you know, focusing in on cleaning up the institution ended up being about a four to six year, well, actually for me, it was a 25-year project.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were there that night that I got elected both the primary and the general. They were real proud of their number two son. My mother was there when I was sworn into office in January. My father passed in the middle of December. But, you know, it was a big moment for the family.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no. 1972, George Montgomery, Richard Nixon and I couldn't vote for Montgomery. That wasn't going to happen. In 1876, I thought Jury Fort was a good guy. I wasn't a big fan of Jimmy Carter. And by 1978, Ronald Reagan came along and I thought, now this is my guy. So I became a Republican.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I bought that company and we were in the packaging and plastics business. Frankly, I was the sales guy. So all I really wanted to be in life was a salesman. And company was doing well and we moved into a new neighborhood. Somebody got me involved in our neighborhood homeowners association. See, and I'm the Speaker of the House. It's like, what happened to my career?”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David, there was not a job that I didn't have somewhere along the way. You know, when I was growing up, if you could shovel snow and make a buck, you did. I worked at my dad's bar. I cut grass if I had to cut grass. I worked for a stonemason carrying stones one summer. I drove trucks, heavy equipment, bulldozers, pavers, worked for two different roofing companies. But there was never a day in my life that I didn't have a job until I retired from Congress.”
2021-04-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 441 — Speaker John Boehner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source