Fox host Bill O’Reilly says that Speaker of the House John Boehner needs to sort out his public crying habit, but Boehner said Sunday that he has no plans to change or explain his teary-eyed ways.
“I am who I am,” Boehner said in an interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace that aired Sunday, describing himself as “one of the most transparent people” in Washington.
Further addressing his crying tendency, Boehner said, “I’m not going to apologize for being emotionally attached…to the things I feel strongest about.”
But O’Reilly may not let Boehner off that easy. During a previous interview with Wallace that aired Friday, O’Reilly said Boehner “almost cried again” at the State of the Union, possibly due to the comments President Obama made about his rise from poverty.
“I don’t know Congressman Boehner very much, he looks like a smart guy to me, but I think he’s got to get his emotions under control,” O’Reilly said.
Wallace said “what you see” with Boehner is “what you get.”
“You say ‘kids’ or ‘American dream,’ or ‘you’ve come a long way’ and he seems to puddle up…I do know Boehner pretty well, what you see is what you get,” Wallace said, adding that television stations around the country ask about why Boehner cries so much. “There’s no artifice about him…[He] grew up poor, ten eleven kids, he did in fact sweep out his father’s bar…That’s just who he is. It obviously upsets some people.”
O’Reilly said it isn’t so much that people aren’t upset with Boehner, but rather they think the habit makes him look weak.
“[Boehner is] the most powerful guy in [the Republican Party] as it stands now,” O’Reilly said. “A lot of Americans…you know, well, the guy’s crying every two minutes, does that mean he’s strong? Does that impact on his leadership, his credibility?…[There’s] the assertion that Putin is over there laughing at him because Putin is wrestling polar bears without his shirt and has never cried in his life, and he’s like, ‘Oh, look at this sissy.'”
[WATCH: O’Reilly and Wallace talk about Boehner’s toughness]