Paul Ryan Threatens RNC Absence If Trump Is GOP Nominee

Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WN) has made it clear that he is not in support of former President Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency. On Friday, he declared his intention to skip the Republican National Convention if the GOP chooses to put Trump out as its nominee.

As he said in an interview with ABC News’ Milwaukee affiliate WISN-TV, the only way he would attend the RNC, even if it would be held in his home state, is if the GOP chooses someone other than Trump.

“It depends on who the nominee is. I’ll be here if it’s someone not named Trump,” he stated.

The former speaker, however, does not think it would ever get to that as he doubts the GOP will nominate Trump for the 2024 election. Trump, he says, would give the party a lower chance of winning the election than another nominee. His comments contradict the failing results Republicans had seen prior to Trump’s historic victory in 2016.

“The reason I don’t think he’ll be our nominee is because we know we’re going to lose with him. He cost us the House in ’18, he lost the White House in ’20, he cost us the Senate in ’20, he cost us the Senate again in 2022, and he cost us probably a good dozen House seats in 2022,” he said, adding that Republicans should have learned their lesson on that front.

Ryan, who fought against Trump’s America First policies during his time in Congress, has declared his opposition to Trump’s 2024 presidential bid since November, not long after the former president announced his latest White House bid. He had tagged himself a “never-again Trumper.” Even before Trump officially declared he would be running the race, Ryan had deemed him unelectable as he predicted that the Republican would be nominating someone else.

 

Responding to Ryan’s statements against him, Trump took to his Truth social and called him a “loser.” “I won twice, did much better the second time, and was 233 Wins out of 253 Races in the Midterms. Paul Ryan is destroying Fox, and couldn’t get elected dogcatcher in the Republican Party,” he wrote.

Ryan has been consistently critical of Trump since his departure from Congress in 2019. But the statistics say different from what he is saying. A poll conducted by Harvard CAPS-Harris showed Trump has the backing of 46% of the participants when he is placed side-by-side with President Biden. Biden gathered 41% of the support, while 13% were not sure.

When he was paired with Vice President Kamala Harris, 49% opted for him, while 39% opted for Harris. Trump also won in a hypothetical Republican primary from the same poll.

Paired with formally-declared presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Trump was the respondents’ choice, with 37% of the support.

Behind him was DeSantis, who gathered 19% of support.