Probably.
After
bailing earlier Friday morning, soon-to-be former Speaker of the House John Boehner will be speaking to the press shortly. Follow his remarks here.
For more on his shocking announcement, see here, here, here and here.
10:08 AM PT: Boehner opens by singing "My, oh my, what a wonderful day," and then starts a laundry list of Republican accomplishments (pause to laugh).
10:10 AM PT: Reiterates that he originally planned to only serve two terms as speaker, but Eric Cantor's primary loss changed his mind. Says he then planned to leave at end of year, but "it's become clear" that the long fight over his speakership would do "irreparable harm."
10:10 AM PT: Says he woke up this morning and decided "Today's the day I'm going to do this. Simple as that."
10:12 AM PT: So far, no tears.
10:13 AM PT: While acknowledging that he was emotional yesterday, he said the pope's visit didn't bring about his decision. (Now getting choked up, talking about pope-moment ... okay, actual tears now.)
10:15 AM PT: Says the "turmoil"—about efforts to oust him—was just bad for the party, but that he had plenty of people who were still following him and he's proud of what he's accomplished. Says there is still a lot of work to be done and says impending retirement won't change his decision-making process.
10:19 AM PT: Describes the Republican conference's reaction as "shocked." Said he had to tell Kevin McCarthy five times before he believed him. Says he thinks McCarthy would be an excellent speaker. Also notes that his wife's reaction was to say "good."
10:21 AM PT: On how the new speaker could avoid future pitfalls: to "respect the institution ... do the right thing." No word on how that will help future speaker avoid said pitfalls.
10:25 AM PT: Finishes up by saying he's resigning for the right reasons, sings a few bars of "I think we've established that a lot of people don't know how to spell "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," and that was it.