Not too long ago, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan gave a pathetic interview with CBS in which he tried to defend president Donald Trump and proved that he had no backbone. During that interview, Ryan lied his a** off and defended the Trump’s tax cuts, which completely contradicted comments Ryan has made about the president before.
But Ryan is spineless, and he’s even admitted this before. He actually confessed that he’s absolutely powerless against Trump, and simply does whatever the president tells him to – like in this next example from a while back.
In a piece in the New York Times, Ryan admitted that he stopped trying to keep Donald Trump in check after the former reality television star won the 2016 election. In speaking to the Time’s Mark Leibovich, Ryan tried to talk about what he’d accomplished during his time as Speaker of the House, only to be interrupted by Trump calling him. At one point in the interview, Ryan said “Ah, jeez” as a congressional aide interrupted the interview to hand him a note stating that Trump was on the line. Ryan took the call and when he returned to the interview, he said:
The president saw me on ‘Fox & Friends.’ He said he thought I looked good.”
Ryan explained that phone calls about television appearances are actually one of the main interactions he has with Trump, who is obsessed with television. Ryan said, “That happens to me a lot.” Leibovich wrote in his piece:
Trump and Ryan are stylistic and philosophical opposites: Trump the blunt-force agitator vs. Ryan the think-tank conservative. Trump lashes out while Ryan treads carefully. Ryan still fashions himself a ‘policy guy’ and a man of ideas.”
Ryan spoke at length about Trump’s election in the interview, stating that he didn’t think the unhinged businessman was going to win. He said:
It was shocking to me, I didn’t see it coming. It threw me off,” before adding he quickly learned to not push back against Trump, and remarking, “I think some people would like me to start a civil war in our party and achieve nothing.”
While Ryan has earned the reputation of being spineless and cowardly when it comes to Trump, he insisted that he stands up to Trump in private and has prevented things from blowing up further:
Trust me, I’ve stopped this from being much worse. I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy. I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal.”
However, Ryan admitted that once he saw that Trump couldn’t be controlled or reasoned with, he tried to work around the president whenever he could to get things done. Ryan also tried to avoid butting heads with the president, because it could make Trump go off in the other direction and have a “boomerang” effect. Leibovich commented:
Ryan tends to speak of the commander in chief as if he were sharing a coping strategy on dealing with a Ritalin-deprived child.”
That’s a pretty accurate translation of what Ryan said, in his own words:
He goes in the other direction, so that’s not effective. The pissing match doesn’t work.”
Having Ryan say this before the midterm elections, as Trump campaigns around the country for GOP candidates, is not a good look for the Republican Party.
Featured image via screen capture
