Steve Schmidt Rips Paul Ryan Over New Interview: ‘His Weakness Is Just Extraordinary’

Nicolle Wallace and her panel today panned Speaker Paul Ryan‘s comments in a new interview.

Ryan spoke out in a profile for New York Times Magazine on his decision not to seek reelection and his relationship with President Donald Trump

“His weakness is just extraordinary,” Steve Schmidt said.

He elaborated:

“I don’t want to sit here and disparage Paul Ryan the man, because he’s a good guy. He’s a moral person. He’s a decent person. Take him seriously when he says ‘I want to spend more time with my kids and family, and I didn’t want to fund-raise, I didn’t want to do all these things, I’m not political, I’m a policy guy.’ The job required hardness, firmness, toughness, standing up to this lawless president. He is supine, he is weak, he is feeble, unlike anybody who has ever held the position of Speaker of the House. This is a constitutional office with immense power, second in line to the presidency. When you see the abdication of responsibility to the country from the Republican leadership, it is galling, it is appalling, and his legacy will be a shameful one because of it.”

Former Republican congressman David Jolly said Ryan clearly sees the GOP is no longer his party but Trump’s, though he did find that comment about “tragedies” somewhat shocking.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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