During his post-election news conference, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was repeatedly pressed by CBS News reporter Nancy Cordes about “a new crop of conservatives coming into the House” who she implied Boehner would have trouble managing.
The CBS reporter asked Boehner “so the hell no caucus as you’ve put it is getting bigger and some of them don’t think you’re conservative enough. How do you deal with them differently than you did in the last Congress?”
Cordes began her questioning by listing off some new members of Congress “who have suggested among other things that women need to submit to the authority of their husbands, that Hillary Clinton is the anti-Christ and that the families of Sandy Hook victims should just get over it.”
For his part, Speaker Boehner resoundingly refuted the CBS reporter’s premise that this “hell no” caucus is influencing the Republican Party:
Yes we have some new members who have made some statements. I'll give you that. But when you look at the vast majority of the new members that are coming in here, they are really solid members. Whether it's the youngest woman to ever serve in the Congress to another African-American Republican from Texas, we have done a very good job of recruiting good candidates and we’re going to have a very good crop of members.
The CBS reporter wouldn’t let up in her attempts to get Speaker Boehner to criticize his caucus. She concluded her questioning by asking the Ohio Republican “on immigration for example, you tried to act in the last Congress and your conservative members yanked you back. How can you work with the president on an issue like that?”
On Thursday’s CBS This Morning, Cordes used the “yanked you back” line during a report on Senator Mitch McConnell’s post-election news conference to play up Democratic talking points against the GOP:
McConnell says he wants to trust but verify. Democrats say they want to trust but verify that he’s actually going to eliminate some of the gridlock around here. They argue that he's been responsible for a lot of that gridlock and that the times he has tried to work with the president, Norah, that often his conservative members have yanked him back again.
See relevant transcript below.
John Boehner Press Conference
November 6, 2014
NANCY CORDES: Mr. Speaker, you have a new crop of conservatives coming into the House who have suggested among other things that women need to submit to the authority of their husbands, that Hillary Clinton is the anti-Christ and that the families of Sandy Hook victims should just get over it. So the hell no caucus as you’ve put it is getting bigger and some of them don’t think you’re conservative enough.
JOHN BOEHNER: No, no, no. Now, listen –
CORDES: How do you deal with them differently than you did in the last Congress?
BOEHNER: I think the premise of your question I would take exception to. Yes we have some new members who have made some statements. I'll give you that. But when you look at the vast majority of the new members that are coming in here, they are really solid members. Whether it's the youngest woman to ever serve in the Congress to another African-American Republican from Texas, we have done a very good job of recruiting good candidates and we’re going to have a very good crop of members.
CORDES: On immigration for example, you tried to act in the last Congress and your conservative members yanked you back. How can you work with the president on an issue like that?
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [1]