Speaker Paul Ryan on Presidential Nomination: “Count Me Out”
House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Tuesday afternoon in a news conference to rule out once and for all a presidential bid or accepting the GOP nomination in 2016.
“Let me be clear – I do not want nor will I accept the nomination for our party,” Ryan said at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill. “I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee, to be the president, you should actually run for it.”
The scheduled mid-afternoon speech from the Wisconsin Republican came after weeks of fueled speculations and his name being floated as the alternative to be a nominee at a contested convention in a case a majority of the delegates don’t get behind either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Even though Paul has said before that he would not accept the nomination, the rumors continued as the “Committee to Draft Paul Ryan” filed official paperworks with the FEC earlier in March. Former Speaker John Boehner also added fuel to the fire by saying he would back Ryan as the GOP nominee if the first convention ballot doesn’t elect either of the three candidates left in the running.
“If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only choose from a person who has actually participated in the primary,” Ryan said, telling delegates directly to consider picking one of the 17 original candidates who partook in the primary contest. “I chose not to do this, therefore, I should not be considered. Count me out.”
When asked by a reporter how can one believe he will not backtrack on his words like he has done before when he denied that he didn’t want to become speaker, only to become speaker a month later.
“Being speaker of the House is a far cry from being president of the United States,” Ryan asserted. “That is entirely different than getting the nomination for president of the United States by your party without even running for the job.”
