House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) enjoys a glass of red wine and a cigarette, and he wouldn’t be willing to give that up to be the country’s chief executive.
“Listen, I like to play golf. I like to cut my own grass,” he told Jay Leno on Thursday’s “The Tonight Show.” “You know, I do drink red wine. I smoke cigarettes, and I’m not giving that up to be president of the United States.”
Boehner wouldn’t endorse a potential 2016 candidate, but told Leno that “Jeb Bush is my friend, and I frankly think he’d make a great president.”
The speaker was more animated talking about his duties as the leader of the House. Growing up in a bar gave him the skills he needed to lead the GOP caucus, he said — “you have to learn to deal with every jackass that walks through the door” — but he later added that people often don’t understand being House speaker involves more than just leading.
“They don’t realize I’ve got a lot of other roles that I play,” he said. “Some members, I have to be the big brother figure. Some I have to be the father figure, others I have to be the dean of students or the principal. Some of them, I have to be the Gestapo.”
When Leno asked if the infighting within the GOP is the worst he’s ever seen, Boehner hedged before nodding his head. “Oh, no … well, maybe it is. Probably. It’s bad.”
“The funny thing about the so-called infighting is we agree on all the goals,” he said. “We think Obamacare is bad for the country. We think we shouldn’t spend more than what we bring in. We think the president is ignoring the laws. It’s all a fight over tactics.”
