If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.  

House Speaker John A. Boehner may have been channeling that old grade-school rule in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Asked by host Chuck Todd to weigh in on the 2016 presidential contest, the Ohio Republican confirmed again that he likes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and he’s a “big fan” of John Kasich, the current governor of his home state. But Hillary Rodham Clinton? Not so much. “When I say Hillary Clinton, what do you think? Give me a word of phrase, first thing that comes to mind,” Todd asked.  

“Listen, I don’t have a word for her,” Boehner said. Pressed again to share his thoughts on the woman overwhelmingly favored to become the Democratic nominee in 2016, Boehner offered up the bare minimum: “Former secretary of State.”  

Boehner also said Wisconsin’s Scott Walker has “done a good job as governor,” but he said the crowded Republican field will sort itself out without him. “I’m not going to get into the middle of it,” he said.  “I’m not going to get into — I’m not going to endorse anybody. I don’t want to hurt anybody.”  

Boehner recorded the interview Friday as House members left town for a weeklong recess.  

Boehner and his top deputies, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., ended April with a blitz of interviews, press releases and social media posts touting the accomplishments of the first 100 days of the Republican-controlled 114th Congress.  

The House is set to reconvene Tuesday, May 12.  

Related:

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