'I don't know': Paul Ryan doesn't rule out future run for president
The remarks came in a sit-down interview with The Huffington Post that was published online Friday.
"Do you have any interest in being president one day?" a reporter asked.
"I've passed on it 2012, I passed on it in 2016. If I was that ambitious, I would have run by now," the Wisconsin Republican replied.
He added: "I have presidential-sized policy ambitions, but I've really yet to have presidential-sized personal ambitions."
"So you don't see yourself taking that jump?" the reporter pressed.
"I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question," Ryan said.
"Maybe it's because the stage and phase in life I am," the House speaker added. "I think that's really probably it. The reason I have not been as personally ambitious as my policy ambition is, I think, is just because the phase of life I'm in, given the stage and age of my family."
Ahead of the 2016 cycle, there was much speculation about Ryan jumping into the race. When Donald Trump seized the GOP nomination, Ryan was floated by Republicans opposed to Trump's candidacy as someone whom delegates could possibly agree to nominate at the convention through a change in rules.
Ryan, for his part, repeatedly said he was not interested in running for president in 2016.