Former House Speaker John Boehner (R) is sharing what shocked him following the 2020 presidential election.
“What struck me, especially after the election, was, here’s all these people loyal to Donald Trump, and he abused them,” Boehner said during an interview with USA Today.
He added, “He stepped all over their loyalty to him by continuing to say things that just weren’t true.”
Boehner made similar comments during an appearance on “The View” on Monday.
While explaining the consequences of Trump’s unsubstantiated voter fraud claims, Boehner argued his supporters are among those who the former president has harmed the most.
“The saddest part of this, beyond the fact that the riots that did occur at the Capitol, is that the president abused the loyalty and the trust that voters had placed in him by perpetuating this noise,” Boehner said.
He continued, “It was really one of the sadder things I’ve seen in the last 40 years in politics.”
Watch his remarks below:
.@SpeakerBoehner tells @TheView seeing former Pres. Trump promote baseless claims of voter fraud was “one of the sadder things I’ve seen in the last 40 years in politics.”
— The View (@TheView) April 12, 2021
“[Trump] abused the loyalty and the trust that voters had placed in him by perpetuating this noise.” pic.twitter.com/W7dSa5V7Ey
In his new book, “On the House: A Washington Memoir,” Boehner blasted Trump, saying he incited “that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullsh*t he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.”
Boehner continued, “He claimed voter fraud without any evidence, and repeated those claims, taking advantage of the trust placed in him by his supporters and ultimately betraying that trust.”
He argued Trump’s “refusal to accept the result of the election” not “only cost Republicans the Senate but led to mob violence.”
For Boehner, “It was painful to watch.”