John Boehner Cries While Telling Nancy Pelosi How Much His Daughters ‘Admire’ Her During Portrait Unveiling

John Boehner choked up Wednesday as he told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi how much his daughters “admire” her during a special ceremony.

A portrait of Pelosi was unveiled at the Capitol to honor her. Pelosi is the first woman to serve as House Speaker. She held the gavel from 2007 until 2011 when Boehner took it after the 2010 midterms. She took it back in 2019 during former President Donald Trump’s term in office and will no longer hold a Democratic leadership position after next month.

Boehner, an establishment Republican with an affinity for tanning, tobacco, alcohol, and spontaneous crying was in Washington for the ceremony. He celebrated his one-time Democratic rival and was emotional as he spoke from the podium.

“You’ve been unfailingly gracious to me, to my family and, frankly, my team here in Washington,” he said. “And Madam Speaker, I have to say, my girls told me, ‘Tell the Speaker how much we admire her.’”

Boehner began to cry and was met with applause.

“If you couldn’t tell, my girls are Democrats,” he joked.

Boehner later added, “No other speaker of the House in the modern era, Republican or Democrat, has wielded the gavel with such authority or with such consistent results. Let me just say: you are one tough cookie.”

He continued, “You and I have disagreed politically on many things over the years, but we were never disagreeable to each other. As you might have heard me say before, you can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Boehner resigned from the House in 2015. Paul Ryan took over as speaker and held the gavel until Democrats took the majority in the 2018 midterms.

Watch above, via C-SPAN.