Pundits agree: Paul Ryan is retiring because he sold his soul to Donald Trump

[DonViejo]

As Ryan prepares to retire as Speaker of the House, pundits seem to agree that he is leaving behind a bad legacy

MATTHEW ROZSA
04.12.2018•8:42 AM

Pundits reacting to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's surprise retirement announcement seem to agree on one thing — the outgoing congressional leader has left behind a legacy of appeasement toward a man who once seemed to represent everything he deplored about the Republican Party, President Donald Trump.

One anecdote perhaps best sums up the irony of Ryan's position, and it came from a Politico report in December that revealed Ryan had been planning to denounce Trump's bigoted politics on Election Night 2016 after Hillary Clinton's expected victory:

As disappointed as he was about Clinton’s apparent victory, the speaker saw a silver lining: He would seize the occasion of Trump’s defeat—beginning that night—to speak about a return to an inclusive, aspirational, Jack Kemp-inspired “happy warrior” conservatism, and a rejection of Trumpism.

That anecdote came up again when Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic offered his preliminary postmortem of Ryan's career.

Instead, when Trump won, Ryan folded the speech back into his jacket pocket—where it has receded deeper ever since . . .

But after Trump took office, Ryan blinked at confronting the president’s appeals to white racial resentments. Pressed for reaction to comments like Trump’s reported description of African nations as “shithole” countries, Ryan managed to mumble the bare minimum of plausible criticism: “The first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful.” For most people genuinely distressed by Trump’s remarks, “unfortunate” and “unhelpful” were probably not the first words that came to mind; “racist” and “xenophobic” were.

Even more consequential was Ryan’s refusal to challenge Trump on behalf of the young undocumented immigrants included in former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Though the speaker repeatedly promised the “Dreamers” that Congress would protect them, he has allowed the legislation that would have preserved their legal status to wither, after Trump and House Republican hardliners insisted on linking it to poison-pill provisions that would slash legal immigration.

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https://www.salon.com/2018/04/12/pundits-agree-paul-ryan-is-retiring-because-he-sold-his-soul-to-donald-trump/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Paul Ryan is who he is,

and that is a true Libertarian Jerk-wad. When Trump won,first thing I thought of was his chance to move the Koch Brothers Heritage Foundation Agenda.

And he did.

Ryan's has one thing lurking over his shoulder,and that is Team Mueller looking for money connections between Russians and the RCCC slush funds .

[Greybnk48]

2. Agree. Especially that he will likely be pulled in

with Trump by Mueller. I'm hoping another native son, Scotty Walker, will go down as well in the Fall (voted out), AND as being in cahoots with Trump/Russia and the 2016 election.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Prosser covered Walker's

sorry ass. Remember the recall time frame,Walker was ready to file Bankruptcy,funny how that worked out. Where did he find the Cash to stave off that? But,the Milwaukee Journal was and is in bed with Walker and Fitzgearld Cabal.

[Orsino]

4. He sold his soul long before Trump came along. n/t

[IluvPitties]

5. He's always been a bad apple.