Paul Ryan Paul RyanPoll: GOP has edge for open Wis. House seat In six new sanctuary states, Americans put at risk What the 'Bernie Sanders wing of the GOP' can teach Congress MORE on Thursday pressed presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald TrumpTrump touts Navy expansion proposal in Pa. More women are voting early in key battlegrounds: report Matt Schlapp: 5 post-debate reasons Trump is still in it MORE to do more to unify the party. But the Speaker’s latest public break with Trump has started tearing Republicans apart. 
 
 Members of the "Never Trump" movement and Trump’s biggest critics on Capitol Hill cheered Ryan’s remarks on CNN that he could not in good conscience endorse or support the bombastic New York businessman at this time. 
 
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 Ryan’s “proving that he's an honest and courageous leader and not just another politician who quietly falls in line,” Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla), who has refused to endorse Trump, told The Hill. “He’s putting the country above petty partisan interests.” 
 
 But some of the Wisconsin Republican’s other House colleagues scolded the Speaker for not giving Trump a full-throated endorsement after his two remaining rivals — Sen. Ted Cruz Ted CruzFive takeaways from money race Club for Growth: Anti-Trump spending proved to be 'good call' Republicans, it's time to stop asking 'What would Reagan do?' MORE (R-Texas) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — dropped out of the GOP primary. Failing to back Trump could hand Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonTrump touts Navy expansion proposal in Pa. Matt Schlapp: 5 post-debate reasons Trump is still in it Five takeaways from money race MORE, the Democratic front-runner, an easy White House victory, some members argued. 
 
 “This man is now our presumptive nominee, and we need to be rallying behind him, and I’m disappointed that the Speaker wasn’t able to do that today,” said one GOP lawmaker who previously backed another candidate but is now supporting Trump. 
 
 “Paul is the highest-ranking elected Republican in the country. For him not to be backing the nominee sends a dangerous message.” 
 
 “Simply wrong,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) chimed in on his Facebook page in response to the Speaker. 
 
 Added Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Trump surrogate who’s friends with Ryan: “The Speaker shares the unity responsibility and his statement today isn't helpful. I'm confident he will realize that soon.” 
 
 The GOP divide over Ryan’s decision not to get on board with Trump reflects the broader civil war raging within the Grand Old Party as it prepares to coronate a billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star with zero political experience and a questionable conservative record. 
 
 Ryan and Trump’s differences have been on full display for months: The Speaker criticized Trump’s plan to ban foreign Muslims from entering the U.S., called on Trump do tamp down violence at his rallies and chided him for not forcefully disavowing white supremacist David Duke. 
 
 “At this point, I think he needs to do more to unify this party, to bring all wings of this Republican Party together and then to go forward to appeal to all Americans in every walk of life, every background, a majority of independents and discerning Democrats,” Ryan said on CNN’s “The Lead.” 
 
 “I think conservatives want to know: Does he share our values and our principles on limited government, the proper role of the executive, adherence to the Constitution?” 
 
 Ryan’s stunning remarks capped an already strange day in the 2016 campaign. All but one of the living GOP presidents and presidential nominees said they would skip this summer’s GOP convention in Cleveland, where Trump will formally be nominated. 
 
 And the CNN interview came after two other top party elders — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnellRubio: GOP Congress could go in different direction than Trump Pelosi blasts GOP leaders for silence on Trump Reid: Groping accusations show Trump’s ‘sickness’ MORE (R-Ky.) and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Ryan’s longtime friend from Wisconsin — both endorsed Trump, calling him the “presumptive nominee.” 
 
 Ryan's comments are remarkable for another reason: Trump has won waves of support and has run away with the GOP primary contest on one message. Ryan now wants him to change it to another. 
 
 It's a request Trump flat-out rejected on Thursday. 
 
 “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda,” Trump said in a terse statement. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!” 
 
 In the CNN interview, Ryan went on to say that Republicans want “a standard-bearer that bears our standards and that unifies all of the wings of the Republican Party." 
 
 What was unsaid was that Ryan, himself, is essentially the only person who satisfies this condition. Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate in 2012, Ryan last fall was reluctantly drafted by moderate and conservative colleagues alike to be Speaker after John Boehner John BoehnerTrump may pose problem for Ryan in Speaker vote Conservatives backing Trump keep focus on Supreme Court Vote House Republicans out MORE abruptly resigned in the middle of his term. 
 
 The ambitious 46-year-old Speaker has presidential aspirations but said he decided not to run this cycle and wouldn’t be his party’s nominee under any circumstance. Some have speculated that his high-profile speeches and interviews this year, contrasting himself with Trump, are paving the way for a White House bid in 2020 in the event Hillary Clinton crushes Trump in November. 
 
 However, a more short-term view is that Ryan is trying to insulate some of his more vulnerable members from Trump and the unrelenting attacks from Democrats that come with Trump’s impending nomination. 
 
 “He’s giving his conference a little wiggle room. He’s saying he’ll take the hits on behalf of the conference,” said one GOP strategist. “If I was Speaker, that would be my calculus, too.” 
 
 Trump and his campaign aides have been trying to set up meetings between Trump and House and Senate lawmakers sometime this month — a show of GOP unity as the candidate pivots to the general election. But Ryan’s hesitation to endorse Trump will put a wrinkle in those plans. 
 
 “That's [Ryan] playing power games with Trump,” said a Democratic aide. 
 
 The aide said Ryan's message is two-pronged: One, Republicans are not going to just kowtow to Trump. And two, Trump is going to have to deal with Congress, in general, and Ryan in particular. 
 
 But it’s Ryan who may get an earful from rank-and-file Republicans when Congress returns to Washington next week. 
 
 “The Republican leadership doesn’t get to tell the people what the party is all about. The people tell the leadership what the party is all about. And right now, the party is about Donald Trump,” said the GOP lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak freely about Ryan. 
 
 “Republican voters get to decide what the party stands for and who the nominee is. Right now, the party nominee is Donald Trump, and we need to find a way to support him.” ||||| “You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything,” said former Speaker of the House John Boehner as he took the stage at CEMEX Auditorium on Wednesday evening. Boehner joined David M. Kennedy, faculty director and history professor emeritus, in a talk hosted by Stanford in Government (SIG) and the Stanford Speakers Bureau. 
 
 This joking yet blunt attitude set the tone for the night as Kennedy and the former Speaker discussed topics ranging from Boehner’s upbringing in Ohio to the future of the Republican Party. For the second half of the program, Kennedy opened up the floor to student questions. 
 
 2016 presidential election 
 
 Much of the discussion — and laughs — focused on Boehner’s views on the current presidential candidates. Segueing into the topic, Kennedy asked Boehner to be frank given that the event was not being broadcasted, and the former Speaker responded in kind. When specifically asked his opinions on Ted Cruz, Boehner made a face, drawing laughter from the crowd. 
 
 “Lucifer in the flesh,” the former Speaker said. “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 described other Republican candidates as friends. In particular, he said he has played golf with Donald Trump for years and that they were “texting buddies.” 
 
 His friendship with Ohio Governor John Kasich, however, was a little more ambiguous. 
 
 “[Kasich] requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he’s still my friend, and I love him,” Boehner said. 
 
 Boehner for the most part accepted Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, though he did express his surprise at the candidate’s success. While he did not praise Trump’s policies, the former Speaker did say he would vote for Trump in the general election if he becomes the Republican nominee. He said he would not, however, vote for Cruz. 
 
 When it came to the Democrat primaries, Boehner asserted his belief that although Bernie Sanders has put up a significant fight, Hillary Clinton will win the nomination. While stating that he disagreed with Sanders on all the issues, he also called Sanders a nice guy and the most honest politician in the race. 
 
 On Clinton, Boehner’s reviews were more mixed. Early in the talk, he impersonated Clinton, saying “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” to a negative crowd reaction. Later, he added that he had known Clinton for 25 years and finds her to be very accomplished and smart. 
 
 Boehner also speculated about surprises that could come closer to the Democratic National Convention if Hillary Clinton’s emails became a larger scandal. 
 
 “Don’t be shocked … if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen,” Boehner said. 
 
 Time in office 
 
 Kennedy also spent a large portion of the talk asking the former Speaker about his time in office and his relationship with President Obama. Having been elected to office 13 times — a number which he was quick to clarify with Kennedy — Boehner said he had learned a lot from previous Speakers, including Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. 
 
 Throughout the talk, Boehner frequently referenced the Freedom Caucus as the “knuckleheads” and “goofballs” in Congress. When Kennedy asked about the Democrats in Congress, Boehner asserted that both parties have their own inner divisions. 
 
 “The thing that’s different about Republicans and Democrats is that [Democrats] do their fights behind closed doors,” he said. “Republicans are way too independent for that.” 
 
 Although he talked about the challenges of working with a partisan, gridlocked Congress, Boehner reflected positively on his relationship with Obama. Although he acknowledged that the two disagree, Boehner said the two get along well. 
 
 Boehner described his days in office as fairly repetitive and very busy. He would wake up around 5:30 a.m., walk to Starbucks for coffee, then return home to do some morning reading. He would go into the office around 8 a.m., and “then it was like a sprint all day long.” According to Boehner, however, he always made sure to go home by 10 p.m. 
 
 “I think my proudest accomplishment is walking out of there the same jackass I was 25 years before,” Boehner said. 
 
 In speaking of his retirement, the former Speaker said he didn’t regret a thing. As a Catholic, Boehner said it was particularly moving to meet Pope Francis when he spoke to Congress. Boehner resigned the following day. 
 
 Student reactions 
 
 When the floor was opened for student questions, questions ranged from asking Boehner to push for the censure of former Speaker Dennis Hastert to his opinions on the future of the Republican Party. 
 
 Brandon Camhi ’16 asked Boehner about how he would prevent more socially progressive conservatives from becoming disillusioned with the Republican Party. 
 
 “If I were running for president, I’d be running on things that unite Republicans,” Boehner said. “These other issues are just going to keep coming up, and the Democrats know where our soft spots are.” 
 
 According to Camhi, this was as much as he expected the former Speaker to be able to answer his question. 
 
 “He said as much as he’s going to say, and what he said is true,” Camhi said. “The Republican Party has to move away from divisive social issues.” 
 
 More generally, Camhi was surprised by how candidly Boehner spoke. According to Alex Lee ’18, who attended the smaller reception with Boehner after the event as a member of the Stanford Speakers Bureau, this same candor was present in his personal conversations as well. 
 
 According to Lee, it was also interesting to have a minority political opinion being represented on Stanford’s predominantly liberal campus. 
 
 “I could [feel] the tension in the room when Boehner said certain things, namely claiming that Clinton was leveraging her gender or discussing South Carolina bathrooms,” Lee said. 
 
 At the end of the discussion, Kennedy re-focused the talk by asking Boehner who his political heroes were. In his answer, Boehner re-emphasized his own relatively moderate stances within the Republican Party. 
 
 “Well you know I’m a big fan of Ronald Reagan,” Boehner said. “But I love all these knuckleheads talking about the party of Reagan. He would be the most moderate Republican elected today.” 
 
 Contact Ada Statler-Throckmorton at adastat ‘at’ stanford.edu. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201604/3404/1155968404_4868871695001_4868853072001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true “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," former House Speaker John Boehner said of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Boehner: Cruz is 'Lucifer in the flesh' The former House speaker also says that he would vote for Trump, and called the two of them 'texting buddies.' 
 
 When it comes to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, even a few months’ time out of Congress has done little to lessen former House Speaker John Boehner’s contempt for his former Capitol Hill colleague. 
 
 “Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner told an audience at Stanford University on Wednesday night, according to 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.” 
 
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 In fact, Wednesday night was not the first occasion that Boehner has compared Cruz to “Lucifer.” He used the epithet last month during a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida. 
 
 As far as Donald Trump goes, Boehner remarked that he had golfed with Trump for years and that the two are “texting buddies” — a comment Cruz seized on in his requital Thursday. 
 
 “If you want someone that’s a texting and golfing buddy, if you’re happy with John Boehner as speaker of the House and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump’s your man,” Cruz told reporters during a stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Cruz insisted he never “worked with” Boehner and, in response to being called Lucifer, Cruz added that Boehner “allowed his inner Trump to come out.” 
 
 Cruz is notorious for his toxic relationship with his congressional colleagues. It turned radioactive in 2013 when the Texas senator played a pivotal role in shutting down the federal government with his high-stakes attempt to defund Obamacare. 
 
 Republicans were widely blamed for the historic disruption, and Cruz’s colleagues heaped scorn on him as a result. 
 
 The vitriol has waned some, but Trump has gleefully exploited it, maintaining that as the standard-bearer, he can unite the party — unlike Cruz, who has little support among the people who work with him in Congress. 
 
 On Thursday, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) seized on Boehner’s comments and again showed he’s not letting bygones be bygones over the shutdown. 
 
 “Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz,” King said on CNN. “Listen, what John Boehner was most concerned about was Ted Cruz perpetrated a fraud and a hoax when he brought about the shutdown of the government on some kind of a vague promise that he was gonna be able to take Obamacare out of the budget or to end Obamacare.” 
 
 Boehner’s successor Paul Ryan, who has been neutral throughout the primary and will chair the Republican National Convention this summer, said he has a better relationship with Cruz than Boehner did but didn’t necessarily come to the senator’s defense. 
 
 “I have a very good relationship with both of these men,” he said, referring to Boehner and Cruz. “I’m going to keep it that way.” 
 
 White House press secretary Josh Earnest expressed confidence that Boehner was simply being candid when he offered his take on Cruz. 
 
 
 
 “Obviously, Speaker Boehner was speaking based on his own experience,” Earnest told reporters. “I don’t know that he was looking to be helpful for harmful. I think he was just looking to be honest about his own view.” 
 
 In the sit-down on Wednesday night, Boehner was more magnanimous when talking about fellow Ohioan John Kasich. 
 
 The governor “requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he’s still my friend, and I love him,” Boehner said, according to the report. 
 
 On the Democratic side of the race, Boehner said that while Hillary Clinton would win the party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders is a likable guy and the most honest politician in the race. He also apparently impersonated the former secretary of state, saying, “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” while reportedly later noting her accomplishments. 
 
 Boehner’s comments also included a reference to the ongoing FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was at the State Department, speculating on what might happen if the scandal widens. 
 
 “Don’t be shocked … if two weeks before the convention, here comes Joe Biden parachuting in and Barack Obama fanning the flames to make it all happen,” the former speaker said. 
 
 Boehner also had some fun with how people botch his name, telling the crowd, “You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything.” 
 
 Nolan D. McCaskill and Rachael Bade contributed to this report.
– For a retired speaker of the House, John Boehner has had a lot to say lately. Over the past couple of weeks, he's likened Ted Cruz to Lucifer and bragged about the House GOP's victory against ObamaCare, and now he's moved on to his next target: Hillary Clinton. Speaking Thursday at the SALT investment conference in Las Vegas, Boehner touched on the FBI's probe into Clinton's private email server and made mention of a possible alternative for the Democrats if Clinton has to drop out of the presidential race, the Hill reports. "Boehner says he 'would not be surprised at all' if Clinton 'has to withdraw' and [Joe] Biden 'parachutes in,'" tweeted CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly, whose Twitter timeline was filled with plenty of other juicy Boehner quotes from the SALT speech. Boehner was on a rip-roaring roll, dissing Bernie Sanders ("he's an old curmudgeon"), Elizabeth Warren ("I don't need a nightmare while I'm awake"), and, naturally, Ted Cruz ("Thank God the guy from Texas didn't win"). He also begrudgingly threw his support behind Donald Trump, noting Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee "whether people like [it] or not," even though he conceded he doesn't agree with Trump on much policy-wise. "Anybody who doesn't think Donald Trump can win, just watch," he warned, shortly after he took a long, awkward pause when asked why current Speaker Paul Ryan would want Trump as the nominee. But despite his loquaciousness, Boehner is still glad he's out of the fray. "Every day I read the news, I'm [reminded] of how happy I am that I'm not in the chaos," he said.