John Boehner Spotted at Capitol as Kevin McCarthy’s Future as Speaker is Anything But Certain

Former House Speaker John Boehner walked the halls of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night and sparked a flurry of speculation he could again lead a Republican majority.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is working to get to the 218 votes he needs to secure the speakership. But finding the votes is proving difficult. The GOP will begin the 118th Congress with a slim majority and little room for defectors for the California Republican.

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) are each staunchly opposed to McCarthy’s bid to lead the GOP.

“Kevin McCarthy (Establishment-CA) is now reduced to threatening and pressuring incoming freshmen House members to vote for him,” Gaetz wrote in a tweet on Nov. 18. “We have the votes to force a change.”

Others are on the fence with many reportedly leaning no on McCarthy.

It is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Consitution the Speaker must be a sitting member of the House, and so theories about who might become the next speaker have been floated. One of them earlier in the day included Boehner.

https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/1598059224751550464?s=20&t=tARSqNwdRO1zpKm25nuo9w

Enter the Ohio Republican, who visited his old stomping grounds Wednesday for reasons that are not yet clear.

Twitter lost its collective mind:

https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/1598102821068738561?s=20&t=aZtn50GY0ML3MXRQEW9gyQ

Boehner, a moderate, led the GOP from 2007 to 2015. He has spent his retirement drinking wine, tanning, smoking cigarettes and pitching legal cannabis.