Paul Ryan: Trump a ‘scourge’ on the country, Republican Party
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Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said the historic vote to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as speaker on Tuesday was “a total disgrace.”
He also had strong words about former President Donald Trump, who he said was a “scourge” on the country and the Republican Party. He said he was in favor of the GOP nominating a presidential candidate “who is not indicted,” and praised several of the candidates running for the 2024 nomination, saying they were much more likely to beat President Joe Biden than Trump.
Ryan was speaking Thursday at Utah Valley University as a guest of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy. Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who was at the address, asked Ryan for his reaction to McCarthy’s ouster. His day included a conversation with Herbert as well as media interviews focused on solving the debt crisis, the border crisis, keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin at bay and increasing civility.
Paul Ryan: Matt Gaetz is an ‘unprincipled demagogue’
Ryan said an “unprincipled demagogue” overthrew McCarthy for “just doing his job” — referring to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who coordinated the effort to remove McCarthy from his role, and who Ryan criticized by name later in his remarks.
Gaetz claims he voted to remove McCarthy because of his support for a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open, but in remarks Tuesday McCarthy said he believes Gaetz’s move was “personal” over McCarthy’s unwillingness to support Gaetz after he was faced with ethics violations.
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“You’ve got these people who go to government to entertain, not to govern,” said Ryan.
He said he had a recommendation for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who are the front-runners in the race to replace McCarthy — “They should not take this job unless they fix the motion to vacate.”
When McCarthy was running to be speaker in January, he made a deal with a group of hardliners who refused to initially support him. One of the concessions he made was that it would take only one member to bring a motion to vacate the chair.
McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed from his office through a motion to vacate the chair.
When Ryan was speaker, he faced a lot of pushback from the members of his caucus who did not think he was sufficiently supportive of Trump.
Ryan had harsh words for Trump, and his indirect role in the ousting of McCarthy.
“The kind of populism we have right now is not rooted in principle. It’s unprincipled populism, wrapped around the cult of a personality on Donald Trump. And this populism is gripping our party in very ugly ways,” he said. “And it’s manifesting itself in this ugly politics that we just saw displayed on the House floor two days ago. We have to get past this.”
In response to a question from a student on how to encourage less divisiveness in the country, Ryan said voters should send “more John Curtises and fewer Matt Gaetzes” to Congress.
Curtis is the Utah congressman who represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes UVU. Ryan praised Curtis as someone who tries to solve problems, while criticizing Gaetz.
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Paul Ryan on Donald Trump and populism
“I don’t know if you all know this, but Trump and I don’t get along very well,” he said.
“I think he’s a scourge. I think he’s dangerous for our party and for the country. Look, I’m old school. I’m old fashioned. I believe political leaders should strive to be honest, ethical and moral people and should try to set a standard for the rest of the country. Donald Trump doesn’t do any of that. He frankly does the opposite of that. That’s one of the reasons why I think he’s unfit for office.”
But, Ryan acknowledged, that argument doesn’t seem to move Trump supporters. Instead, he said, Republican primary voters may be swayed over potentially losing the next presidential election.
“The argument that works, I think, is we just lose with this guy. He keeps losing us elections. We lost the House with him. We lost the Senate twice with him. We lost the presidency. That’s going to keep repeating itself right here,” he said.
When asked what voters should look for in the next president, Ryan said they should pick someone who hasn’t been indicted.
“Look, I’m for a non-Trump Republican anyone,” he said, before adding that he wasn’t sure about the “Vivek guy,” referring to presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Here’s the way I see it. The party that puts the first fresh face forward wins this election,” he said. He added that he thinks Biden will beat Trump in a rematch.
If Trump is the nominee, he said, Republicans will lose suburban voters in the swing states they need to win the election — Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“The college educated suburban voter does not like Donald Trump,” he said.
Ryan also said the reason Republicans haven’t taken on entitlement reform or the nation’s debt in a serious way is because of populism related to the rise of Donald Trump, he said.
“In the Trump party, they’re not talking about debt reduction, they’re not talking about tackling these challenges. So I saw something missing in our party, which was a drive and a goal and a plan to get our debt under control,” he said, which led him to write a book with other American Enterprise Institute scholars on ways to tackle debt and entitlement reform, while addressing poverty at the same time.
He also blamed the “Trump factor” for the lack of support for Ukraine among Republicans. Calls to address the nation’s southern border before helping Ukraine were misguided, he said.
“I think ... we can walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s not as if securing the border is mutually exclusive to helping Ukraine. That’s a bunch of bull,” he said.
Ryan also said he believes Trump has “sympathy” for Putin.
Ryan calls for support for Ukraine
Ryan called for the continued support for Ukraine, saying it was easier to send weapons and munitions for Ukrainians to use to defend themselves, than potentially facing an empowered Russia if it beats Ukraine and takes on NATO countries.
“Ukraine is on the frontlines of the fight for democracy,” he said. “If we don’t help the Ukrainians defend themselves, then it’s obvious Putin will keep going. And then he’ll probably tripwire NATO, and then we send our troops.”
Ryan also argued that China is watching what happens in Ukraine.
“If we don’t support Ukraine, and Putin wins Ukraine, that affects our China policy as well,” he said.
On China, Ryan said he is concerned that country is exporting technology to dictatorships to enable them to monitor their citizens. He also warned that China could face a “population death spiral” in the next 10 to 15 years, which would affect their economy as well.
$33.4 trillion debt
Ryan has long sounded alarm bells about the debt. The national debt is at $33.4 trillion — 122% of the entire nation’s economy — and the annual deficit at $2.2 trillion.
He said back when he started out, it would have only taken a few years to get the country out of debt if it tackled the problem head on. Now, he said, it would take decades.
Even Nancy Pelosi is concerned about the debt now, he said.
He pushed back on the idea that raising taxes on the rich, as proposed by Democrats, would help the country get out of debt.
“You can take all of the rich’s money, you can take every penny they have, and that doesn’t even come close to solving this problem. You literally cannot mathematically tax your way out of this problem,” he said. “It really is a spending problem.”
Ryan called for entitlement reform and budget process reforms.
The set of policy proposals he released with AEI included tax reform, which he said would raise revenue, but would do it in a way that wouldn’t slow economic growth.
Eventually, Ryan said, external factors will force the country to deal with its debt, as inflation and interest rates continue to rise and the markets react poorly to federal lawmakers’ decisions.
Ryan calls for Social Security and Medicare reform
As part of the discussion about the debt, Ryan said it was important for lawmakers to reform Social Security and Medicare. He said they should do it without changing benefits for current older workers.
Entitlement reform should include means testing for benefits, meaning wealthy retirees would get less money, and raising the retirement age for future retirees. He also said states should get bloc grants for Medicaid.
Ryan praised his former running mate, Sen. Mitt Romney, who he said was a “dear friend.” He said Romney’s TRUST Act is the country’s best bet for tackling entitlement reform.
“Frankly, Mitt Romney has the bill, called the TRUST Act, that probably is the answer. In the old days, I wanted Congress to do it all. I didn’t want to outsource our job to some commission to solve the problem that Congress is likely to solve. But right now, I just don’t see Congress in the place to do it,” he said.
The TRUST Act would create a commission to tackle entitlement reform, with the caveat that Congress had to hold an up or down vote on their recommendations once the commission completed its task.
Ryan praises Utah, Latter-day Saints
Ryan praised The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his remarks, saying it contributed to the civil society in Utah, leading to the state being the top place in the country for social mobility.
He also praised the church’s missionary program, which he said helped those who participated in it.
Ryan, who is a Catholic, said he is optimistic about the country, but asked those present during his remarks to do more to encourage the growth of a more civil society.
