House Speaker Paul Ryan Gets New Office, Old Smell
John Boehner left something memorable for his successor.
— -- John Boehner left something for new House Speaker Paul Ryan to remember him by: the smell of his cigarette smoke.
When the Wisconsin Republican inherited the speaker's office Friday, it still smelled of Boehner's cigarettes, which he was known to smoke frequently.
"It's like when you get a rental car or a hotel room that's been smoked in; you know someone has smoked in it," Ryan, a fitness buff, joked to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz Friday.
Boehner's smoking habits meant he could only hang prints on his office walls. Replicas of original artwork were held back by the Smithsonian.
Staffers are using an "ozone machine" to air out the speaker's office, which boasts the best view of the Washington Mall in town. Despite his objections to the smell, Ryan will continue to use the office.
Ryan, 45, said in interviews Friday he will continue to sleep in his House office while in Washington.
Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., banned smoking in the House speaker’s lobby off the floor in 2007, though members are allowed to smoke in their own offices.
Smoking was banned from the House chamber in 1896.
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