Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn't think First Lady Michelle Obama was necessarily rolling her eyes at him when she was seen giving a dismissive expression at the Inauguration Day luncheon on Monday, a House GOP colleague told reporters on Tuesday.
(Video of the first lady's look above)
Seated between Boehner and her husband, the first lady was caught in the crossfire of small talk between President Barack Obama and the speaker. At one point, Boehner tapped Michelle Obama's arm, before saying something to the president. The look the first lady gave in response suggested that she was not amused by the discussion, but Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) has since said that Boehner believed it wasn't a reaction to his words.
"He said, 'I have no clue what that was about,'" Fleming recalled after a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday night, according to Yahoo! News. "He said they were just having a casual conversation. He said he doesn't know why she rolled her eyes. It was nothing they were communicating on that would be a reason to do that, so he's not sure. Maybe she heard something else. He was speculating that maybe there was another conversation she was hearing."
Lip reader Larry Wenig had a different hypothesis. On Tuesday, he told CBS' "Inside Edition" that the speaker was ribbing the president about not being allowed by his health-conscious wife to sneak a cigarette before the luncheon.
Boehner's office rejected that interpretation, however, and other lip readers said that there was not enough video evidence to decipher the exchange.
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