There is a school of thought among many Republicans that they simply have no choice but to support Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy. The former president is their party’s presumptive nominee — whether they like it or not — so these partisans feel compelled to simply go along with the wishes of GOP primary and caucus voters, regardless of merit or consequence.
Among the most obvious problems with this assumption is that a variety of prominent Republicans have said they simply can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump in the general election, offering partisans a model to follow. His own former vice president, Mike Pence, is arguably the most dramatic example, but there are others, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, former Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Mitt Romney, and former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, meanwhile, recently said he’ll write in the name of a different Republican on his 2024 ballot. “Character is too important to me, and it’s a job that requires the kind of character [Trump] just doesn’t have,” the former Wisconsin congressman said last month.
As HuffPost noted, Ryan elaborated on his perspective yesterday, this time for a national television audience.
The Fox News host asked if the former House speaker came to this conclusion as a result of “the whole Jan. 6 thing.”
Ryan replied, “That’s a part of it. I think it really is just character at the end of the day, and the fact that if you’re willing to put yourself above the Constitution ― an oath you swear when you take federal office, whether as president or a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution ― and you’re willing to suborn it to yourself, I think that makes you unfit for office.”
To be sure, this position didn’t come out of nowhere. For the first half of Trump’s White House term, Ryan went out of his way to cover for the then-president and align himself with his party’s leader. But after walking away from Capitol Hill in early 2019, Ryan began making his dissatisfaction with Trump known.
It led the former president to do what he always does: Trump has repeatedly condemned Ryan as a “pathetic RINO” and a “loser.” As recently as last month, the presumptive GOP nominee declared online, in reference to Ryan, “He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History.”
In the same missive, Trump noted that Ryan is a Fox executive — he joined the Fox Corporation’s board of directors five years ago — but he called on Rupert Murdoch to fire the former speaker.
But of particular interest yesterday was Republican Rep. Troy Nehls’ reaction to Ryan’s latest Trump criticisms. “Paul Ryan, you’re a piece of garbage,” the Texan told CNN. “You’re a piece of garbage and we should kick you out of the party.”
In case this isn’t obvious, in the very-recent past, Ryan was seen as one of the Republican Party’s most important and influential far-right voices. When the party needed a House speaker in 2015, GOP members practically begged him to take the gavel. Three years earlier, he was his party’s vice presidential nominee.
But in 2024, Ryan is not only at odds with a Republican presidential nominee he can’t bring himself to support, he’s hearing from folks like Nehls — who want to kick him out of the Republican Party altogether.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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