Former Speaker Boehner weighs in on Speaker Ryan leaving office

Former House Speaker John Boehner today said he believed current Speaker Paul Ryan stepped down after achieving his dream of passing a comprehensive tax bill and dismissed the notion that far-right conservatives will replace Ryan as speaker, saying “they can’t win.”

“They know they can’t win,” he said, referring to a group that includes Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana. “So I’m sure that’s not going to happen.”

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He said while Republicans will decide who will replace Ryan, “I think Kevin McCarthy did a good job as Majority Leader for me and he’s done a good job for Paul and clealry I think he’s in the number one spot.”

Boehner, a West Chester Republican who served as speaker from 2011 until he retired in 2015, pushed Ryan into taking the job. . In his press conference announcing his imminent retirement Wednesday, Ryan admitted he took the job “reluctantly.”

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Boehner Wednesday dismissed the notion that Ryan left because he feared the GOP would lose the House majority, saying instead Ryan chose to left because he achieved a goal he has worked on for roughly a decade.

“He accepted the fact that he had to do this job and I think he did it well, but tax reform was always his baby and he got his job done,” he said.

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