Smoker John Boehner Joins Board of Tobacco Company
The former House speaker is famous for his smoking habits.
— -- Former speaker of the House and notorious cigarette-lover John Boehner will be joining the board of Reynolds American, America's second-largest tobacco company.
The company, headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, owns Camel -- Boehner's professed favorite -- as well as Newport and Pall Mall brand cigarettes.
Boehner will serve on the board’s corporate governance, sustainability and nominating committee, the company said in a statement.
As speaker of the House, Boehner made $223,500 annually. It was unclear how much Boehner will earn as a board member.
The transition is not a surprise for those who worked with Boehner, like House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had to fumigate his smoke-filled office when Boehner left Congress.
"You know if you got to a hotel room or get a rental car that’s been smoked? That’s what this smells like," Ryan joked in an interview with NBC shortly after becoming speaker.
In 1996, he was caught handing out contributions from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor. Then in 2014, Boehner was criticized for accepting hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions from tobacco lobbyists, ultimately acknowledging it as a "bad habit."
During his more than 20-year run in the House, the Ohio Republican was famous for his smoking and red wine habits. On NBC's "The Tonight Show" in 2014, he told Jay Leno that he wouldn't be running for president because he didn't want to give up cigarettes, red wine or cutting his own lawn.