Yes, Boehner had many tears during Pope Francis’s visit to the Capitol, and appeared to try to hold them back Friday as he spoke of resigning from the House. Crying in public is kind of Boehner’s thing, and it has been for awhile. He lets the waterworks flow and he has no shame about it.
Boehner, with tears, celebrating the GOP victory on Nov. 2, 2010. (Cliff Owen/AP)
Recall the moments before he assumed the Speaker’s gavel in 2011. “He looked up at his wife, two daughters and 10 of his 11 siblings in the gallery above. They were crying, and so was he.”
As The Post’s Paul Kane wrote in 2010, “His friends say there’s a method to the madness.”
“When you see that happen, you really get to the core of what he believes,” former Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) said in 2010. Kane writes that Latham then described “one of two sure-fire moments that will break down the presumptive speaker’s tear ducts: speaking “about why he originally ran . . . to make a difference, because he wants to keep the country great.”
Speaking before a crowd in a downtown Washington hotel following the 2010 midterms, Boehner said: “Listen, I hold these values dear because I’ve lived them.” He then began to sniffle. “I spent my whole life chasing . . . the American dream.”
The word “dream” was no sooner out of his mouth then he just started crying, pausing a full 20 seconds to soak in the moment and fight back the tears as the crowd chanted “USA, USA.” Boehner finally returned to tough-guy form, yelling, “All right!” He fought back tears for the entire final minute of the speech.
The crying scene was played in [the following day] by the cable news outlets. Sheepishly, Boehner owned up [that morning] to his inability to control himself.
“Most of you know it’s just a little difficult to talk about my background or talk about my family,” he said. “And I thought – I thought I was going to be in good shape, but not as good as it turned out.”
Go on ahead, Mr. Speaker, and show those emotions.
