Former House Speaker John Boehner seems to be enjoying his retirement—and wouldn’t you, after what he went through in Washington? One reason for his buoyant mood, besides the chance to cut grass, is the opportunity to stay far, far away from Senator Ted Cruz.
Asked about Cruz during an appearance at Stanford University on Wednesday, Boehner called him “Lucifer in the flesh,” according to the The Stanford Daily.
“I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life,” Boehner added. He said he would not vote for Cruz in a general election, though he would vote for his fellow tangerine-tinted Republican Donald Trump.
It’s not news that Boehner doesn’t like Cruz, whom he has previously called a “jackass” and a “false prophet,” nor is the source of their bad blood a mystery: Cruz helped rally revolts against leadership, particularly in the House, that led to the 2013 government shutdown, and his attempts at undermining Boehner made the speaker’s life impossible, eventually driving him to retire. Temperamentally, they’re opposites, too—the sentimental, irreverent, wine-loving Ohioan and the sanctimonious, ambitious Texan.