Boehner on Immigration 'Ribbing': 'You Tease the Ones You Love, Right?'

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) denied today that he mocked conservative last week on immigration, telling reporters that you “tease the ones you love.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on Boehner’s remarks about GOPs who don’t want to move a bill at a Thursday Rotary Club speech in his district. “Here’s the attitude. Ohhhh. Don’t make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard,” Boehner said. “We get elected to make choices. We get elected to solve problems and it’s remarkable to me how many of my colleagues just don’t want to … They’ll take the path of least resistance.”

Boehner told media outside of a closed caucus hearing on the Hill today that “there was no mocking.”

“You all know me. You know, you tease the ones you love, right? But some people misunderstood what I had to say and I’m going to make sure the members understood that the biggest impediment we have moving immigration reform is that the American people don’t trust the president to enforce or implement the law that we may or may not pass,” he said.

“It’s — it’s — I’ve said it here. It’s the truth. And our members know it’s the truth.”

Asked if there’s going to be any immigration bill coming to the floor, the Speaker replied, “Listen, we continue to work with our members.”

“We all know we have a broken immigration system,” Boehner continued. “And we’re going to continue to work with our members and have discussions to see if there’s a way forward. But the president has to take action himself. He’s got to show the American people and show the Congress that he can be trusted to implement the law the way it may be passed.”

Boehner added that “sometimes I can rib people just a little too much sometimes. This wouldn’t be the first time.”

“We can’t trust the president to carry out Obamacare the way it was passed. I made that point perfectly clear,” he said. “It’s the same point I’ve made to the president for the last four months, that he continues to make these arbitrary changes to the law and just raises more angst with our member and with their constituents.”