Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) announced to a Friday meeting of the Value Voters Summit that House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) was resigning to a huge standing ovation.
After the applause died down, Rubio said that it was time to "turn the page" and bring in a new generation of leadership. He added he did not mean to "bash" Boehner, loathed by many in the Tea Party caucus, or anyone else.
"With all due respect to people who serve in government, it is important at this moment, with respect to him and the service he's provided to our country, it's not about him or anybody else, and I'm not here today to bash anyone," Rubio said. "But the time has come to turn the page. The time has come to turn the page and allow a new generation of leadership in this country. And that extends to the White House and the presidency as well."
The New York Times reported on Boehner's resignation:
Mr. Boehner, who was first elected to Congress in 1990, made the announcement in an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning.
The Ohio representative struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members.
Most recently, Mr. Boehner, 65, was trying to craft a solution to keep the government open through the rest of the year, but was under pressure from a growing base of conservatives who told him that they would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood. Several of those members were on a path to remove Mr. Boehner as speaker, though their ability to do so was far from certain.
Mr. Boehner’s surprise announcement came just a day after Pope Francis visited the Capitol, the fulfillment of a 20-year dream for Mr. Boehner of having a pontiff address Congress. He had a private audience with Francis before the pope’s address to a joint meeting of Congress.