by Jon Dougherty at conservativebrief.com
Former House Speaker-turned-Fox News board member Paul Ryan has once again spoken ill publicly of former President Donald Trump while also acknowledging that he remains a potent political force.
In an interview Wednesday with CNBC, the Wisconsin Republican said he would “never again” support Trump but said he definitely could win back the White House next year.
“Look, it’s a disaster if we nominate Trump, you know, I think that I’ve been saying this for a long time,” he said. “But Liz [Cheney] is right: he could win.”
“I’m for anybody not named Trump,” Ryan added before correcting himself and saying he meant that he would support any other Republican presidential nominee.
“We haven’t won anything with him since he first won in 2016. 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,” he went on, failing to mention that Republicans took back the House last year.
Ryan was then asked if he believes the GOP can win without the ‘America First’ faction that supports Trump. He responded by saying he’s a “Never Again Trumper” and that a great many Republican voters do not care much for him anymore.
For the record, Trump doesn’t think much of Ryan, either, especially since he was among a group of former GOP leaders who blocked much of what Trump tried to do during the first two years of his presidency, such as build the border wall.
In December, Trump took a verbal potshot at Ryan, who ran unsuccessfully as GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012, while he explained in an interview how Republicans could avoid falling into Democratic legislative and political “traps.”
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