Hoyer pays tribute to Cantor

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) congratulated outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) for his congressional service during their weekly colloquy on Friday.

Cantor scrapped the back-and-forth conversation on the floor last week, just two days after his primary loss, to discuss the upcoming floor schedule.

{mosads}”I want to say at the outset that I have enjoyed working with Mr. Cantor and at times, not always, but we have worked productively and in tandem with one another for the interest of our country,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer said he expected that Cantor, who will step down as majority leader on July 31 and serve out the rest of his term as a rank-and-file member, would still be an “influential” lawmaker.

“I want to say to the members of House of Representatives that I expect Mr. Cantor to continue to be over the next 5 months an influential and effective member of the Congress of the United States,” Hoyer said.

Cantor thanked Hoyer and said that he had also “enjoyed” working with him.

“I just want to thank the gentleman for his very kind and generous remarks. I too have enjoyed the ability to get to know the gentleman from Maryland,” Cantor said.

Cantor similarly praised Hoyer even though the two have engaged in sometimes heated colloquies on the floor.

“I know that these colloquies have at times become heated and long,” Cantor said, as Hoyer laughed.

Hoyer said that any perception that Republicans and Democrats couldn’t get along at a personal level was a distortion.

“This is the last colloquy I think that I’ll be having with Mr. Cantor,” Hoyer said. “The American public, I’m sure, thinks we’re all at one another’s throats all the time. And that’s very discouraging for them…But I wanted them to know that there is respect on each side, I think, for the others.”