John Boehner rips Ted Cruz as a 'reckless a--hole' on book's back cover

Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) apparently doesn't hold back against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in his new book — and one particularly brutal quote made the back cover.

The former Republican leader has a new memoir set to be published in April, and Punchbowl News on Tuesday revealed the back cover, which includes selected quotes about Cruz, former President Donald Trump, and more politicians.

Boehner is particularly unsparing when it comes to Cruz, though, saying in reference to the Texas senator, "There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless a--hole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else."

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Another quote is about Trump, who Boehner says called him "fairly often" when he first became president, though not as much later in his term.

"The calls came in less and less as his tenure went on," Boehner writes. "That's probably because he got more comfortable in the job. But I also suspect he just got tired of me advising him to shut up."

Boehner also describes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as someone who "holds his feelings, thoughts, and emotions in a lockbox," recalls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) having "gutted" someone "like a halibut," and describes an unnamed lawmaker who "dropped off the couch and was on his knees" on Boehner's rug with his hands "together in front of him as if he were about to pray" — apparently a story about former Republican lawmaker and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Axios previously reported that Boehner has been "going off script" while recording his audiobook, as when he reportedly at one point ad-libbed, "Oh, and Ted Cruz, go f-- yourself." Cruz hit back against Boehner's reported audiobook insult at CPAC, asking, "Who's John Boehner?" Prior to his audiobook dig, Boehner ripped Cruz in 2016 as "Lucifer in the flesh" and a "miserable son of a bitch." Brendan Morrow