Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) declared former President Donald Trump “a proven loser” whose influence on the Republican Party is waning.
In an interview with Jake Tapper aired on Thursday, the 2012 vice presidential nominee weighed in on the current state of politics, including the new Republican majority in the House.
“What if you were advising Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans right now?” asked Tapper, who cited estimates suggesting economic growth will slow this year. “What would you tell them to do about the U.S. economy?”
Ryan said he’s concerned about a debt crisis and homed in on Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
“[W]e can make good on our social contract, which I would argue, center-left and center-right, we agree on,” he said. “We believe in Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid, so let’s make these things solvent. Let’s make them work better.”
Tapper said when Ryan was speaker, then-President Trump had little appetite to make substantial changes to those programs.
“I know that when you were speaker and Donald Trump was president, you guys would talk about this,” Tapper said. “And he did not understand why you would ever want to do it because it’s bad politics.”
“He just didn’t think it was ever popular,” Ryan replied.
Tapper asked how Republicans could agree to
“Couple of things,” Ryan said. “He’s fading fast. He is a proven loser. He cost us the House in ’18, he cost us the White House in ’20, he cost us the Senate again and again and I think we all know that. And I think we’re moving past Trump. I really think that’s the case. I can’t imagine getting him the nomination frankly.”
Watch above via CNN.