--- title: White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive description: Speaker John Boehner called on President Obama to fire an unidentified staffer who called the Israeli prime minister a profanity. canonical: https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-29T19:08:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:05:52.557Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive og:description: Speaker John Boehner called on President Obama to fire an unidentified staffer who called the Israeli prime minister a profanity. og:url: https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd10c3719b8dd39d5/6987633ba988caebf36aa15c/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: House Speaker John Boehner Holds Weekly News Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive twitter:description: Speaker John Boehner called on President Obama to fire an unidentified staffer who called the Israeli prime minister a profanity. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd10c3719b8dd39d5/6987633ba988caebf36aa15c/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 29, 2014 7:08 PM UTC  U.S. House Speaker John Boehner speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on, Feb. 6, 2014. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on, Feb. 6, 2014.Pete Marovich—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 29, 2014 7:08 PM UTC The White House and the Speaker of the House are clashing over a profanity. A day after The Atlantic [quoted](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/the-crisis-in-us-israel-relations-is-officially-here/382031/) a senior Obama administration official calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a chickens–t,” Speaker John Boehner called on the president to identify the offender and show him or her the door. The quote has intensified the spat between the White House and the Israeli government, and sent the Obama administration’s clean-up operation into overdrive. “What I can tell you is that, in the clearest terms possible and the most open forum possible, that those comments as they were reported do not accurately reflect at all this administration’s view about the nation of Israel, the strength of the relationship between our two countries or the leadership of that important ally,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. In a statement, Boehner said that Obama sets the tone for his administration. “He either condones the profanity and disrespect used by the most senior members of his administration, or he does not,” he said. “It is time for him to get his house in order and tell the people that can’t muster professionalism that it is time to move on.” Earnest fired back during the daily press briefing, referencing Boehner’s own history of “salty language.” “It’s an interesting observation by the speaker of the House, whom you all know has a penchant for using some pretty salty language himself,” Earnest said. “So it’s a little rich to have a lecture about profanity from the speaker the House.” In 2008, before Obama was elected, Boehner [implied](http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Boehner%5FObama%5Fpresent%5Fvotes%5Fchicken%5F.html?showall) that Obama was “chickens–t” for repeatedly voting “present” in the Illinois State Senate instead of casting tough votes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/"},"headline":"White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive","datePublished":"2014-10-29T19:08:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:05:52.557Z","description":"Speaker calls on Obama to fire anonymous staffer","url":"https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/","keywords":["Barack Obama","Benjamin Netanyahu","John Boehner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd10c3719b8dd39d5/6987633ba988caebf36aa15c/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd10c3719b8dd39d5/6987633ba988caebf36aa15c/boehner-gop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Speaker John Boehner Holds Weekly News Conference","caption":"House Speaker John Boehner Holds Weekly News Conference","creditText":"Pete Marovich—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3546531/white-house-boehner-spar-over-expletive/","name":"White House, Boehner Spar Over Expletive"}}]}] ```