- Former GOP Speaker of the House and "never-again Trumper" Paul Ryan appeared on CBS This Morning.
- Ryan listed a litany of reasons why he's "not a Trump fan."
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan appeared on CBS This Morning to declare himself a "never-again Trumper" and blame the former president for GOP losses in the 2022 election.
After cohost Gayle King asked Ryan if he supports Trump for the 2024 Republication, Ryan listed a litany of reasons why he's "not a Trump fan."
"I want to win, and if we nominate Trump we're going to lose," Ryan said, noting that Republicans have been on a losing streak since Trump took office: "He hasn't won anything since 2016. We lost the House in '18. We lost the presidency in '20. We've lost the Senate. We would have won the Senate this time in '22 had it not been for Trump and his nominees in some of our key primary elections, and my guess is we probably would've picked up 10 to 15 seats in the House if it weren't for his involvement."
When King asked if indicting Trump could cause even more division around the country, Ryan demurred and struck a tone similar to that of primary candidate Chris Christie: "This one's national security. This one's different. I used to have these same documents myself as Speaker of the House, so I think this goes beyond just some petty thing," Ryan said, adding that he thinks Trump may be able to make an argument that the Justice Department is being weaponized against him, and that that could carry him to the nomination but won't carry the day in a national election.
"I think we want a nominee who's not weighed down with so much baggage in order to win this election, and it's really clear a lot of our suburban voters will not vote for Donald Trump," Ryan said: "I can tell you how it works in Wisconsin. I can't imagine Donald Trump winning Wisconsin. He lost it in '20, and do you think he's done things since the 2020 election, like January 6th, that make those swing voters want to vote for him?"
While Ryan noted that Trump's base may still support him, the seriousness of the national security issues related to the indictment will make it clear to die-hard Trump supporters that he can't win.
"All the exhaustion of all the Trump baggage is going to make it easier now, I think, to make the argument to his core supporters he's not electable," Ryan said. "He's going to cost us the Senate again, he's going to cost us more House seats, he'll cost us the White House, and we want to win."
"I think if we nominate anybody not named Donald Trump we're going to beat Joe Biden," Ryan said, and while he stopped short of endorsing any of the other current GOP nominees, with the exception of "the Vivek guy," he thinks they're all better choices than Trump.
"I honestly believe any one of them could beat Joe Biden if they become the nominee."