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House Speaker Boehner Discusses Resignation; GOP Put Boehner In A Tough Position; Boehner Didn't Want To Go Through A Vote; Boehner Press Conference; Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 25, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in New York, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Let's get right to the breaking news. The House speaker, John Boehner, calling it quits. The speaker of the House getting ready to speak any moment now. There, you see a live picture from Capitol Hill. We'll have live coverage.

The speaker's abrupt announcement set off a political shock wave on Capitol Hill. It came just a day after an emotional Boehner presided over the address by Pope Francis before a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

And just a little while ago, Boehner issued a statement explaining his decision. He said this, and I'll quote, "The first job of any speaker is to protect this institution that we all love. It was my plan to only serve as speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican conference and the House. It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution. To that end, I will resign the speakership and my seat in Congress on October 30th."

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, took to the floor of the Senate to praise Boehner's leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Grace under pressure, country and institution before self, these are the things that come to mind when I think of John Boehner. He is an ally. He's a friend. And he took over as Republican leader at a very difficult time for his party. When some said Republicans could never recover, he never gave up. When some gave in to defeatism, he kept up the fight. And because he did, speaker Boehner was able to transform a broken and dispirited Republican minority into the largest Republican majority since the 1920s. That's a legacy few can match.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A different perspective coming from the House minority leader. Democrat Nancy Pelosi saying Boehner's leadership missed the mark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. NANCY PELOSI: -- the speaker announcing his resignation. That resignation of the speaker is a stark indication of the disarray of the House Republicans. A demonstration of their obsession of shutting government at the expense of women's health and a sign of the failure of the House Republicans to be willing to engage in dialogue for the good of the American people and for us to move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And there you see live pictures from Capitol Hill. Momentarily, the House speaker, John Boehner, will make a statement and then answer reporters' questions.

So, what happens next? Let's bring in our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, our CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and our Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju.

Jeff, what can you tell us about the timing? When did the speaker decide to step down and resign from Congress?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I'm told by aides close to speaker Boehner and some friends of his that he really made the decision last night. But as Dana's been saying, he did sleep on it. We know his morning ritual is to go to Pete's Diner. So, he did sleep on it this morning, and then that's when he began advising some of his inner circle.

But, Wolf, this has been building. This has been growing here. He said that he could survive this leadership fight that was coming. But in his own statement, he said that he had wanted to step aside to avoid any leadership turmoil.

So, that is the big question here. He has survived leadership challenges in the past, but this is a different moment. The antiestablishment knew that we've seen so much in the presidential campaign. That is alive here on Capitol Hill as well, so that is the same sort of forces that are going at this here.

So, he decided yesterday, after one of the biggest, most glorious days of his speakership, finally bringing a pope into this building to deliver that joint address to the session of Congress. That's when he decided to leave on this very, very high note. But it's been building a little bit for weeks, if not months -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It was the first time ever a pope has addressed a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

Dana Bash is with us. How much pressure was Boehner under from conservatives, Tea Party supporters in his own party?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, a lot. I mean, it was really unbelievable and unprecedented how much pressure he has been under. But that has been the story line here for years. The difference is, as Jeff was saying, is that kind of the anti- establishment fervor out there has been building even more.

[13:05:00] And all you have to do, Wolf, is look at some of the statements from some of the kind of outside conservative groups. Those that John Boehner himself has more and more been very critical of, at his own peril probably. But he has kind of been -- had enough of, effectively declaring victory, saying that they feel that they have worked hard enough to push somebody like him --

BLITZER: Dana, I just want to interrupt. Dana, stand by for a moment. The president, once again, speaking, President Obama, about John Boehner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for President Xi, you've experienced an economic downturn in your country with the stock market crisis, and investors, globally, have been concerned about some of the actions you've to intervene in the stock market and with the currency exchange rate. I wonder if you could say what you told President Obama or what you can say today to restore confidence that these interventions will not have spillover effects into the global economy in the future. Thank you.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (live): Well, Julie, I meant what I said. I'm not going to prejudge who -- how I'll be able to work with the next speaker because I don't know who the next speaker is. And I suspect that there's going to be a lot of debate inside of the Republican caucus about who they want to lead them and in what direction. You know, it's not as if there's been a multitude of areas where the House Republican caucus has sought cooperation previously. So, I don't necessarily think that there is going to be a big shift.

I do think that speaker Boehner sometimes had a tough position, because there were members in his caucus who saw compromise of any sort as weakness or betrayal. And when you have divided government, when you have a democracy, compromise is necessary. And I think speaker Boehner sometimes had difficulty persuading members of his caucus that. Hopefully, they've learned some lessons from 2011, the last time that they sought to introduce a non-budget item into the budget discussions.

At that time, it was Obamacare, and they were going to shut down the government for that purpose. It ended up really hurting the economy, slowing it down, and caused a lot of hardship and a lot of problems for a lot of people. Because it turns out, actually, the government provides a lot of vital services. Our military provides us protection. Our agencies keep our air clean and our water clean. And, you know, our, you know --

BLITZER: All right, I'm going to interrupt the president because the House speaker is about to make his announcement. John Boehner.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE (live): -- every day is to fight for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government. And over the last five years, our majority has advanced conservative reforms that will help our children and their children. We're now on track to cut government spending by $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years. We've made the first real entitlement reform in nearly two decades. And we've protected 99 percent of the American people from an increase in their taxes. And we've done all of this with a Democrat in the White House. So, I'm proud of what we've accomplished.

But more than anything, my first job as speaker is to protect the institution. A lot of you know that -- now know that my plan was to step down at the end of last year. I decided, in November of 2010, that when I was elected speaker that serving two terms would have been plenty. And -- but in June of last year when it became clear that the majority leader lost his election, I, frankly, didn't believe that it was right for me to leave at the end of last year.

So, my goal was to leave at the end of this year. So, I planned, actually on my birthday, November 17th, to announce that I was leaving at the end of the year. But, it's become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution. So, this morning I informed my colleagues that I would resign from the speakership and resign from Congress at the end of October.

Now, as you have often heard me say this isn't about me. It's about the people. It's about the institution. Just yesterday, we witnessed the awesome sight of Pope Francis addressing the greatest legislative body in the world, and I hope that we will all heed his call to live by the golden rule.

[13:10:09] But last night -- last night, I started thinking about this. And this morning, I woke up, and I said my prayers, as I always do. And I decided, you know, today is the day I am going to do this. As simple as that. That's the code I've always lived by. If you do the right things for the right reasons, the right things will happen. And I know good things lie ahead for this House in this country, and I'm proud of what we've accomplished, especially proud of my team.

You know, I've been here -- my 25th year here, and I have succeeded, in large part, because I have put a staff together and a team together, many of which have been with me for a long time. And without a great staff, you can't be a great member, and you certainly can't be a great speaker. I'm going to thank my family for putting up with this all these years. My poor girls who are now 37 and 35, their first campaign photo was in July of 1981. And so, they've had to endure all of this. It's one thing for me to have to endure it but I've got thick skin. But, you know, the girls and my wife, they've had to put up with a lot over the years.

Let me express my gratitude to my constituents who've sent me here 13 times over the last 25 years. You can't get here without getting votes. But -- and I -- I've said this often. When people ask me, what's the -- what's the greatest thing about being speaker or about being an elected official? And I said, well, it's the people you get to meet. And I have met 10s of thousands of people in my own Congressional district that I would never have met other than the fact that I decided to run for Congress.

And over the years, as I traveled on behalf of my colleagues and the party, I have met 10s of thousands of additional people all over the country. And you meet rich people. You meet poor people. You meet interesting people. And probably a few boring ones along the way. But I can tell you that 99.9 percent of the people I meet on the road, anywhere, could not be -- could not be nicer than they've been. It's been -- it's been -- really, it's been wonderful.

It's been an honor to serve in this institution. And with that, all right, junior (ph), go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Boehner, you were noticeably overcome with emotion yesterday.

BOEHNER: Really? What a surprise!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am curious, as you reached this decision last night, if the grace of Pope Francis lead you to this decision?

BOEHNER: No, no. Yesterday was a wonderful day. It really was. And was I emotional yesterday? I think I was. I was really emotional in a moment that really no one saw. As the Pope and I were getting ready to exit the building, we found ourselves alone. And the Pope grabbed my left arm, and said some very kind words to me about my commitment to kids and education. And the Pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and he says, please pray for me. Well, who am I to pray for the Pope? But I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it wasn't the Pope, then what was it?

BOEHNER: It's -- hey, listen, it was never about the vote. All right? There was never any doubt about whether I could survive a vote. But I don't want my members to have to go through this. And I certainly don't want the institution to go through this. And so, especially when, you know, I knew I was thinking about walking out the door anyway. So, it's the right time to do it. And, frankly, I am entirely comfortable doing it.

BASH: Mr. Speaker, I've heard you say before that a leader who doesn't have anybody following him is just a guy taking a walk.

BOEHNER: That's right.

BASH: So, could you --

BOEHNER: I've got plenty of people -- I've got plenty of people following me. But this turmoil that's been churning now for a couple of months is not good for the members, and it's not good for the institution. And if I wasn't planning on leaving here soon, I can tell you, I would not have done this.

BASH: If I -- if I may just continue, there are people who are on the right in your caucus, and even outside of the institution, who have been wanting you to step down for some time, who feel that they have a victory today. Do you feel that you were pushed out?

BOEHNER: No. The members -- I am glad I made this announcement at the conference with all of my Republican colleagues, because it was a -- it was a very good moment to help kind of rebuild the team. Listen, I feel good about what I have done.

[13:15:13]

I know that I, every day, I've tried to do the right things for the right reason, and tried to do the right thing for the country.

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, how can this not be the moment of turmoil. You said you thought about leaving two years ago after (INAUDIBLE) the House in turmoil. You have to keep the government open in a couple of days, the debt ceiling. There's going to be -

BOEHNER: I'm going to be here for another - I'm -

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) leadership -

BOEHNER: I'm going to be here for another five weeks and I'm not - I'm not going to leave. I'm not going to sit around here and do nothing for the next 30 days. There's a lot of work that needs to be done and I plan on getting as much of it done as I can before I exit.

QUESTION: And as a result, though, because does that make it easier in some ways to make some tougher decisions, maybe rely on the Democrats to keep the government open next week or -

BOEHNER: No. I'm going to make the same decisions I would have made regardless of this.

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, you have made no secret of your frustrations with some members of you R (ph) right flank and some outside groups. You've used words like "knuckleheads," and some other words we probably can't use on television.

BOEHNER: Probably. Probably.

QUESTION: Have you just had enough? And how will anything be different -

BOEHNER: No. No, I - I - let me tell you. I would not describe it as having had enough. That's not it at all. When you're the speaker of the House, your number one responsibility is to the institution. And having a vote like this in the institution, I don't think is very healthy. And so I've done everything I can over my term as speaker to strengthen the institution. And then, frankly, my move today is - is another step in that effort to strengthen the institution.

QUESTION: But won't the next speaker face the same thing?

BOEHNER: Hopefully not.

QUESTION: That's my question, Mr. Speaker, how will Washington be different because you leave this institution? What - what should people watching this expect the House and Congress to do going forward if you're not here?

BOEHNER: Well, if we - if the Congress stays focused on the American people's priorities, there will be no problem at all. And - and while we have differences between the Democrats and Republicans, the goal here, as one of the leaders, is to find the common ground. Listen, I talked to President Bush and President Obama this morning. I talked to all my legislative leaders who I have a very good relationship with all of them, because at the end of the day, the leaders have to be able to work with each other, trust each other to find the common ground to get things done. And so if the Congress stays focused on what is important to the American people, they'll get along just fine.

QUESTION: Can you tell us how your - how your conference reacted to the news?

BOEHNER: Oh, I'd say they were shocked, surprised.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) a little more on that. Maybe how the leadership itself reacted?

BOEHNER: Yes, I told Mr. McCarthy about two minutes before I spoke what I was going to do. I had to tell him five times because he didn't believe me. I said, well, you'd better believe me.

QUESTION: Will McCarthy be the next speaker?

BOEHNER: Listen, I'm not going to be here to vote on the next speaker, but that's up to the members. But having said that, I think that Kevin McCarthy would make an excellent speaker.

Yes, Jackie.

QUESTION: Who was the first person you told and what did they say?

BOEHNER: Well - well, I told my wife.

QUESTION: What did she say?

BOEHNER: She said, good. I - I told my chief of - my chief of staff and I talk late yesterday and I told him I was thinking that today might be the day. And I told him I'd sleep on it. So before I went to sleep last night, I told my wife, I said, you know, I might just make an announcement tomorrow. What? What do you mean? What kind of announcement? Well, I might just tell them it's time to go.

So this morning I woke up and walked up to Starbucks, as usual, and got my coffee and came back and read. And walked up to Pete's Diner and saw everybody at Pete's and got home and thought, yep, I think today's the day. So my senior staff was having a meeting at 8:45 and I kind of walked in before I opened the House and told them, this is the day. It's going to happen someday, well, why not today.

QUESTION: Do you know when the next election will be held?

BOEHNER: No.

Paul.

QUESTION: What (INAUDIBLE) Kevin McCarthy based on your five years, what advice would you give him to avoid the same pitfalls that you've come across?

BOEHNER: Well, I'd tell Kevin, if he's the next speaker, that his number one responsibility is to protect the institution. It - nobody - nobody else around here has an obligation like that. Secondly, I'd tell him the same thing I've just told you, if you just do the right thing every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen.

[13:20:15] You all know me. My colleagues know me. I'm straight with them. You know, they may not like the answer they get, but they'll get an honest answer every single time they come to my office. It's just an easy way for me to do my job.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

BOEHNER: Just all this stuff I read about in the paper and - you know, it's - I really don't want to hurt - the institution to hurt and I don't want my colleagues hurt. I don't want - I don't want to put my colleagues through all of this. For what?

So - yes.

QUESTION: What are you going to miss most?

BOEHNER: Pardon me?

QUESTION: What will you miss?

BOEHNER: What will I miss? Well, of course, all of you.

I don't know what I'm going to miss, because I haven't missed it yet. But I'll certainly miss the camaraderie of the House. you know I - let me tell you another story that is really kind of interesting. Maxine Waters and I, a Democrat from southern California, came here 25 years ago in the same class. Now, you know, there's nothing about my politics and Maxine Waters' politics that's even anywhere close. But yesterday about 5:30 she called my office. And I got a note that she call, so I called her back. And she said, you know, I've come - I've watched you for 25 years here, and we came here together and watched your career, and I watched you today and she says, I just want to tell you something, I'm really proud of you. You know, listen, I've got the best relationships on both sides of the aisle because I treat people fairly and treat them honestly, and so I'm going to miss - certainly will miss my colleagues.

Yes.

QUESTION: To go back to the teams (ph) of trying to take turmoil out of the House and stabilize the institution, how - how do you think that it can become more stable. Several Republicans I've talked to today from your conference said they don't think the new speaker will mean any new outsiders (ph), especially with (INAUDIBLE) leadership, how (INAUDIBLE)?

BOEHNER: As I mentioned earlier, the fact that I did this with my colleagues this morning, and we'll - then we proceeded to have an hour and a half conversation, I thought was a unifying moment. And between that and the pope's call for living by the golden rule yesterday, hope springs eternal.

QUESTION: Speaker Boehner -

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, can you talk about what you think your legacy is, and your leaving, what (INAUDIBLE) and what are you going to do on November 1st? Are you moving to Florida?

BOEHNER: I'm - I was never in the legacy business. You have all heard me say it, I'm a regular guy with a big job. And I never thought I'd be in Congress, much less I'd ever be speaker. But people know me as being fair, of being honest, of being straightforward and trying to do the right thing every day on behalf of the country. That's - I don't - I don't - I don't need any more than that.

QUESTION: Speaker Boehner, do you see (INAUDIBLE) -

BOEHNER: Zippity doo dah, zippity ay.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) -

BOEHNER: You know, when you make a decision this morning, you haven't had hope - really haven't had any time to think about what I'm going to do in the future. I have no idea. But I do know this, I'm doing this today for the right reasons. And you know what, the right things will happen as a result.

Thanks.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the speaker of the House, John Boehner, announcing the resignation. Emotionally, obviously, holding back tears as he spoke of his 25 years in the House of Representatives. He says he was going to announce that he was resigning on November 17th, that's his birthday, that he would be resigning by the end of the year and he decided to accelerate that because of an important vote that is coming up, and vote, he said, that could be very damaging to the House of Representatives as an institution.

I want to bring in Manu Raju, our congressional reporter, Gloria Borger is with us, the former Boehner aide, Kevin Madden, one of our contributors.

Manu, first explain what that vote was all about that the speaker said is so important in the coming days that he woke up this morning after thinking about it last night, saying, for the good of the institution, the House of Representatives, he needed to quit.

[13:25:07] MANU RAJU, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, this really started in the end of - right before the August recess. There was an effort by Representative Mark Meadows from North Carolina to vacate the chair. And what that essentially means is a vote on whether or not to keep John Boehner as speaker.

And what we already know, Wolf, is that there are 25 Republicans who are going to voting against John Boehner. They did that at the beginning of the year. What they were hoping to get was more than 29 Republicans to vote against John Boehner. And if they did get more than 29 Republicans, then Boehner would need to rely on Democratic votes to keep his job as speaker. Now, that would have really undermined him, his standing among the Republicans in his conference.

In addition to that, we've been hearing for weeks about how Boehner had just become toxic in a lot of these districts that Republicans - the districts even supporters off John Boehner. Those Republicans were hearing so many complaints about the speaker and his tenure. So if they were to cast a vote that it would be - it would hurt them politically. And you heard Boehner reference that in this press conference just now, saying he did not want his members to take a tough vote.

So it was very clear that John Boehner would have had to work very hard to keep his job, had to convince his members to vote for him, and a lot of these guys would take votes that could hurt them politically and he just did not have the stomach to go through that, especially since he had already made the decision internally to quit. The matter was just when. And the timing worked out perfectly for him because of the pope's departure and the pope's speech and now he can leave on sort of the high note, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. Yes, he certainly can. All right, Manu, stand by. Everybody else, stand by.

Dana Bash, who was inside that room during the news conference, she'll be joining us. We're going to continue to follow the breaking news, the resignation of the speaker of the House, John Boehner. Much more right after this.

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