Boehner exits at critical point
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner says he had planned to resign at the end of last year but stayed on because he feared a leadership shakeup would create too much turmoil for House Republicans.
Now he’s stepping down at the end of October, when Congress could once again be scrambling to avert a looming government shutdown, the loss of federal funding for thousands of highway projects and an unprecedented government default.
Talk about turmoil.
Boehner announced his resignation Friday amid growing discontent among some of the most conservative members of the House Republican conference.
Some Tea Partyers were pushing for a vote to oust Boehner as speaker, a formal challenge that hasn’t happened in more than 100 years. They complained that Boehner wasn’t fighting hard enough to strip Planned Parenthood of government funds, even though doing so risked a government shutdown next week.
“Listen, it was never about the vote, all right?” Boehner told reporters. “There was never any doubt about whether I could survive the vote.”
But, he added, “I don’t want my members to have to go through this. I certainly don’t want the institution to go through this.”
Besides, Boehner said, his new plan was to leave at the end of this year. Boehner said he had planned to announce it on his 66th birthday, Nov. 17.
“If I wasn’t planning on leaving here soon, I can tell you I would not have done this,” he said.
Boehner said he came to his decision Friday morning, a day after a historic visit to the Capitol by Pope Francis at his invitation. Boehner, a Catholic, said he woke up, said his prayers and decided “today’s the day I’m going to do this.”
He relayed a private moment when the pope put his arm around Boehner and asked the speaker to pray for him.
“Who am I to pray for the pope?” Boehner said. “But I did.”
Boehner said he told House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, about two minutes before he addressed a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Friday morning.
“I had to tell him five times because he didn’t believe me,” Boehner said.
It is uncertain who will succeed Boehner, but McCarthy is the most obvious candidate.
