Former Speaker John Boehner Criticizes Trump for Inciting "That Bloody Insurrection"

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:26 pm

In his new book, former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) criticizes former President Donald Trump and blames him for inciting the Capitol riot of January 6, which took place when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the United States Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 general election results. Boehner says Trump bears responsibility for the partisan divide in Congress as well as much of the tension of the current political moment.

“Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021,” Boehner wrote in On the House: A Washington Memoir, a new book set to be published this month, according to excerpts obtained by The New York Times.

Boehner goes on to write that Trump “incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bulls*** he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November,” noting that Trump’s refusal to accept that he’d lost the election to President Joe Biden “not only cost Republicans the Senate but led to mob violence.”

“I’ll admit I wasn’t prepared for what came after the election — Trump refusing to accept the results and stoking the flames of conspiracy that turned into violence in the seat of our democracy, the building over which I once presided,” Boehner wrote.

Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, responded with a statement referring to Boehner as a “Swamp Creature.” Trump, for his part, called Boehner a RINO, an initialism for “Republican In Name Only.”

When the Capitol was stormed, Boehner publicly criticized the Trump administration and called on Republicans to “awaken.”

“The invasion of our Capitol by a mob, incited by lies from some entrusted with power, is a disgrace to all who sacrificed to build our Republic,” he said at the time.

Boehner would later congratulate Biden on his victory after the Electoral College results were certified.