House Speaker John Boehner fired a stunning blast at Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, reportedly calling him a "jackass" during a Colorado fundraiser.
The Daily Caller, citing two people who attended the Steamboat Springs event for GOP Rep. Scott Tipton, reports Boehner glibly remarked that he liked that Cruz's presidential campaign keeps "that jackass" out of Washington — and from telling the Speaker how to do his job.
"I about fell on the floor," a woman who attended the Wednesday event tells the Daily Caller.
"To build coalitions to work together in Washington, D.C., you don’t start it out by calling your colleague a 'jackass.'"
Another attendee, businessman Ed MacArthur, was fuming.
"I don’t think it’s terribly speaker-like, and I think it kind of goes against everything that [former President Ronald] Reagan ever said about disparaging Republicans," MacArthur, the president of Native Excavating, tells the Daily Caller.
"It’s becoming very disturbing to me that we can’t have good, polite conversation," though he added that he believes the Ohio Republican has "got the right to say it."
According to the Daily Caller, at least 100 people attended the fundraiser.
It isn't the first time Boehner's taken a shot at Cruz at a GOP gathering, the Dallas Morning News reports, noting at a Midland, Texas, event in May, the Speaker flipped the bird at Texas Republican Party Chairman Tom Mechler when asked for his thoughts on Cruz’s presidential bid.
The Morning News reports a Boehner aide later said it was just a joke.
Boehner
has been sharply criticized by some conservative activists, the voters whom Cruz is courting, and the Speaker's shot could help Cruz's cause, the Daily Caller notes.
The Daily Caller said it had not gotten immediate comment from Boehner, Cruz or Tipton.
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