This Audio Clip of John Boehner Telling Ted Cruz to “Go Fuck” Himself Is Really Delightful

Xinhua/Bao Dandan/Zuma

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.It was reported earlier this year that, while recording his audiobook, former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) occasionally randomly veered from the script to tell off Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Specifically, he told Cruz, “Go fuck yourself.”
Now, Axios released the audio. It’s real, and it’s spectacular. Listen:

When @SpeakerBoehner was recording his audiobook I was told by sources that during these wine-soaked sessions he would deviate from the book’s text and insert random violent attacks on @tedcruz. Well, here’s some tape (listen to the end): pic.twitter.com/NFCQ2QFdTT
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) April 2, 2021

“Freedom,” Boehner says, “means you’re free to reach as high as you want no matter where you came from, even if you’re a little kid sweeping a bar out in southwest Ohio. Take it from me. You’ll never know where you’ll end up. That’s freedom. I’ll raise a glass to that any day. P.S. Ted Cruz, go fuck yourself.”
Boehner isn’t the first Republican politician to make his contempt for the Texas senator known. In 2016, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” Even the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Cruz a “wacko bird.”
I wonder what Boehner thought of Cruz’s trip to Cancun.