ABC’s breaking news coverage of John Boehner’s resignation from the House included George Stephanopoulos describing the Speaker as fighting “guerrilla war” against conservatives. Analyst Cokie Roberts on Friday lamented “But it is going to be much, much harder for President Obama to make deals with the Republicans in Congress.”
She worried, “...The people who have pushed him out or made it so uncomfortable for him to stay are much more conservative and it's going to be hard for the President to make deals with those people.”
Stephanopoulos insisted Boehner has been “under pressure, fighting something of a guerrilla war inside his caucus for months from a group of conservative Republicans.”
On MSNBC, Brian Williams decreed that the Speaker had to “put up” with the Tea Party while Speaker.
A transcript is below:
ABC News Live coverage
9/25/15
10:47GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The other big news, this out of Washington: The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, you saw him yesterday behind the Pope Francis in the chamber as the Pope was speaking, announced that he's resigning October 3. You see him meeting the Pope yesterday. I'm here with Matthew Dowd and Cokie Roberts. The Speaker said he was inspired by the Pope to make this move. He's been under pressure, fighting something of a guerrilla war inside his caucus for months from a group of conservative Republicans.
MATT DOWD: We’ve have talked all week about the Francis effect and what effect it would on our country. Well, have the first result of the Francis effect, which is the speaker of the House announcing he's going to resign. I wasn't surprised that he was going to leave. This was a great moment for him. It was a little bit t like the U.S. women's open champion, Flavia Penneta, who as soon as she won it, she said, “I'm out. I’m resigning.” This was the big moment. He decided it was time to go. If you talked to anybody, you know he was very frustrated about trying to manage the leadership of the House.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And he couldn’t do it going forward without Democrats.
COKIE ROBERTS: He couldn't. And I think he realized that. He does care about the institution of the House and what he’s probably effected here is he's probably preventing the shutdown of the government at the end of this week. I think that's unlikely to happen now. But it is going to be much, much harder for President Obama to make deals with the Republicans in Congress, because the people who have pushed him out or made it so uncomfortable for him to stay are much more conservative and it’s going to be hard for the President to make deals with those people.
