John Boehner Talks About Govt Shutdown, His Tan, And Running In 2016

Speaker of the House John Boehner finally decided to give The Tonight Show With Jay Leno a try, perhaps because the talk show host is stepping down at the end of the month.

The chat touched on a variety of topics, starting with the lighter, easier ones and moving on to more touchy, controversial subjects like the much talked about government shutdown.

Boehner credits his large family and working at his father’s bar for giving him the skills he needs to do his job day in and day out.

The Republican House leader denied that he goes to a tanning bed to get the enviable darker looks, even during the harsh winter months.

“Listen, I play golf, I ride a bike, I cut my own grass. My mother’s dark complexion, so I’m a little darker. There’s no tanning beds, no spray, never. Nothing.”

Lucky him.

Turns out John Boehner has a pretty good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at himself. When Jay asked him about his last name he said:

“It’s hard running for office when people can’t say your name. You know, my name looks like Beener, Bonner, Boner. My first race for Congress, I was running against a guy named Kindness. But thank God my name wasn’t Weiner.”

After last year’s disastrous government shutdown — which many blame the Republican Party for — it has been suggested that the GOP is in disarray with serious infighting. Boehner admitted that his party was to blame saying, “Yep.”

“Oh, no, well, yeah, maybe it is. It’s bad. Listen, you know, the funny thing about the so-called infighting is that we agree on all the goals. We think Obamacare is bad for the country, we think we shouldn’t spend more than what we bring in, we think the president’s ignoring the laws. It’s all a fight over tactics.”

Other interesting revelations John Boehner shared on the late-night show were that Ted Cruz was his lawyer at some point, he is friends with Jeb Bush, but is not endorsing anyone for President in 2016, and he doesn’t believe Chris Christie knew about the Bridgegate scandal, but thinks the problems for the New Jersey Governor will not go away any time soon.

Boehner didn’t mince words when talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“I just think he’s a thug, I think he’s treated his neighbors in a disrespectful way and frankly, I think the president ought to stand up to him and better protect America’s interests and our allies, especially in Eastern Europe.”

Finally on a possible run for the Presidency for the Republican Party John Boehner said this:

“No…. Listen, I like to play golf. I like to cut my own grass. You know, I do drink red wine, I smoke cigarettes and I’m not giving that up to be president of the United States.”

John Boehner has been a controversial Speaker of the House, but he knows what he wants and what he is eventually looking forward to is enjoying the little pleasures of life.