During a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a known critic of former President Donald Trump and now a non-mainstream voice within the Republican party, declared his apprehension regarding Trump’s potential nomination for the Republican party in 2024. Ryan, who has never hidden his stance against Trump, echoed sentiments that were in line with those of Democrats and Rep. Liz Cheney, not the broader base of the Republican party or its current front-runner for the 2024 election, Donald Trump.
While one might question whether Ryan is truly in tune with the real concerns facing the country under President Joe Biden’s administration, it seems his attention is directed elsewhere. Evidently, he is more focused on a potential Trump presidency than on the pressing issues of economic downturn, cultural division, and a Democrat-controlled legislature.
In aligning his views with those of former Rep. Liz Cheney, Ryan endorses the perception that Trump’s potential return to the White House is some kind of “threat,” a point that resonates with both Neo-Conservatives and Democrats. His support of Cheney’s assertion, often criticized as overly left-leaning and unfounded, demonstrates his deviation from the core of the Republican party.
Ryan points fingers at Trump for past electoral losses in the House, Senate, and Presidency, without acknowledging his own lack of involvement in those battles. He highlights the missed opportunity in the 2022 Senate elections, faulting Trump’s influence. Yet, it’s worth noting that Ryan himself was not a proactive participant in shifting the electoral outcomes in these instances.
Overall, Ryan’s stance seems to reflect a certain degree of dissatisfaction with Trump’s prominence, while much of the Republican base has grown weary of his moderate and mellow approach to pressing issues.
Paul Ryan said:
It is a disaster if we nominate Trump. You know I think that. I have been saying that for a long time. But Liz is right, which is, that he could win. I think we lose with him. I think we are much more likely to lose. We haven’t won with him since he first won in 16. We lost the House in ’18, the presidency in ’20, the Senate in ’20, and we could have won the Senate in 2022 but for him.
I’m for anybody not named Trump right now.”
Adding: “I’m a Never Again Trumper. So, obviously, the 33 percent base doesn’t like a person like me. I’m very clear: I don’t think he’s fit, and I don’t think he could win. Liz is right: he could, and that is dangerous.”
It’s worth noting Paul Ryan’s role as a member of the executive board at Fox News. This connection becomes understandable when we observe their unjust termination of Tucker Carlson, their criticisms aimed at Trump, and their marked favoritism towards moderate candidates and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It is evident why Trump might contemplate skipping the initial GOP primary debate, given that Fox News is an overtly biased network that is likely to launch strong attacks against him, possibly even surpassing the level of scrutiny he faces from left-wing news networks like MSNBC and CNN.
