Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Republicans will lose the presidential election if Donald Trump is the nominee and that he expects hard-right followers of Trump to force a government shutdown within days.
Ryan, who left office in 2019 and had a sometimes contentious relationship with Trump, said he hoped that another Republican nominee would gain enough momentum early next year to overtake Trump after the first primaries. Ryan represented southeastern Wisconsin in Congress for 20 years, the last four as speaker.
“The party that puts the first fresh face forward wins this election,” Ryan said at an event on the University of Wisconsin campus organized by the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Don’t threaten us with a good time.
Though in all seriousness, I wouldn’t rule out Trump winning. The Saudis want him in power, and are already starting to jack up oil prices, in the hope of causing significant numbers of voters to vote against the government. There is a mood of dissatisfaction with the economy, which is sticking to Biden. The NYT and Washington Post seem to be doing their bit to tar him as a loser (presumably a volatile autocrat in the Whitehouse sells more papers). The Republicans still have structural advantages such as gerrymandering, voter suppression and partisan judges. And not least importantly, all those stories about how the Democrats are winning/abortion will sink the Republicans/the inevitable Trump candidacy will sink like a stone once it’s no longer a Republican primary will undoubtedly persuade a lot of Democrat voters that the race is won and they can take it easy. It’s going to be a hell of a fight.