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Former Republican House Speaker John Boehner in his forthcoming memoir recounted a time he told former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to “go f— yourself,” and it “horrified” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, per an excerpt tweeted out by Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman.
Boehner said the incident, which occurred at the White House amid tense fiscal cliff negotiations in 2013, was sparked by Reid calling the House a “dictatorship of the speaker.”
The former House Speaker apparently took issue with Reid’s characterization of the lower chamber under his leadership.
“I’m sorry, but f— that. I never ran the House like a dictatorship,” Boehner wrote. “If I were a dictator, do you think I’d let all these members get away with screwing me over all the time? Hell no! And Reid, who was a ruthless b—–d, knew exactly what he was doing. That speech was aimed right at the House crazies — he was trying to gin them up even more and make my position even worse.
“So when I saw him at the White House the next day, talking quietly with Mitch McConnell before the meeting, I went over, got in Reid’s face, and said, ‘Do you even listen to all the sh– that comes out of your mouth? You can go f— yourself.'”
Boehner said Reid was “taken aback” and didn’t say anything response, but that their relationship “got a lot better after that.”
“Poor McConnell, though — Mr. Decorum was a stunned and horrified witness to this angry encounter. I thought he was going to keel over from cardiac arrest then and there,” Boehner added of McConnell, who was Senate Minority Leader at the time of the incident.
McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Boehner has unloaded on a number of prominent politicians in his upcoming book, “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” including former President Donald Trump and GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The former House Speaker said Trump incited the Capitol attack via “the bullshit he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.” And Boehner referred to Cruz as a “reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else.”
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Originally published at https://www.businessinsider.com/boehner-mcconnell-horrified-when-told-reid-go-f-ck-yourself-2021-4 on .
