Former House Speaker Paul Ryan says a lot of Republicans wanted to impeach Trump after January 6 but 'just didn't have the guts to do it'

• Paul Ryan praised Rep. Tom Rice for his impeachment vote when campaigning for him in South Carolina.
• Ryan said a lot of people "wanted to vote like Tom," but they "just didn't have the guts to do it."

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that more House Republicans would have voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot if they'd had the "guts" to do so.

Ryan made the remarks at a small reception at a hotel in Florence, South Carolina, while campaigning for Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.

"There were a lot of people who wanted to vote like Tom but who just didn't have the guts to do it," Ryan told the group, the Myrtle Beach Sun News reported. "There are a lot of people who say they're going to vote their conscious, they're going to vote for the Constitution, they're going to vote for their convictions but when it gets hard to do that they don't do it."

"Tom Rice is a man of conviction," Ryan added. "Tom Rice is the kind of person you want in Congress."

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who served as speaker of the House from 2015 until his retirement in 2019, also criticized Trump and other conservatives for seeking to exact "vengeance" on Republicans who cross the former president.

"This is just such a crystal clear case where you have a hard working, effective, senior member of Congress who deserves reelection vs. people who are just trying to be celebrities who may be trying to help Trump with his vengeance," Ryan said, The Sun News reported. "That's not who voters want, voters want people focused on their solutions not on Trump's vengeance and that to me is a really clear cut case here."

Over the weekend, Ryan said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that too many lawmakers in Congress were casting aside policy-making in order to become entertainers on social media. Several Republican lawmakers — including Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — host podcasts or web shows.

Ryan has also raised money for other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, including Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both of whom serve on the select committee investigating the January 6 attacks.

Rice is facing off against South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry, who received the backing of the former president in February.

"Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office ASAP," Trump said in a statement announcing his endorsement.

A Trafalgar Group poll released on Wednesday showed Fry leading the incumbent Rice by more than 17 points.

Rice, an otherwise standard Republican, compared the former president to a dictator in a May 2021 interview with The Washington Post and called him a "would-be tyrant" in a statement lambasting both Trump and Fry after a Trump rally in March.

"If you want a Congressman who supports political violence in Ukraine or in the United States Capitol, who supports party over country, who supports a would-be tyrant over the Constitution, and who makes decisions based solely on re-election, then Russell Fry is your candidate," he said.