Paul Ryan.Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty
Ryan, who has criticizedformer President Donald Trumpand his hold on the Republican Party, “found himself sobbing” during the insurrection, Leibovich writes in his forthcoming book,Thank You For Your Servitude.
Ryan served as a Republican congressman from Wisconsin for two decades, was the vice presidential nominee on the Mitt Romney ticket in 2012, and later became the Republican speaker of the House.
According to CNN, Ryan said something “snapped” in him on Jan. 6.
“Ryan figured the president would bitch and moan and maybe make a big show of ‘fighting’ for his supporters for a while. Everyone could feel good and victimized. But eventually Trump would just leave; hopefully, he would know to do this on his own. And everyone could then just get on with their lives,” Leibovich writes, per CNN.
Since leaving politics in 2019, Ryan has occasionally taken aim at Trump, such as in a 2021 speech, when he said the Republican Party was at a “crossroads.”
“Once again, we … find ourselves at a crossroads,” Ryan said at the time. “And here’s one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Ryan decried the end of the Trump presidency, saying: “It was horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end.”
When Ryan retired in 2019 after four years as House speaker, he publiclysaidhe wanted to spend more time with his three teenage children.
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But journalist Tim Alberta claimed in his2019 bookAmerican Carnagethat Ryan saw his exit as an “escape hatch” from a Republican electorate rapidly shifting toward Trump’s view of the world.
“I wanted to scold him all the time,” Ryan told Alberta in the book.
source: people.com
