Paul Ryan Uses Visual Aids to Defend House Record to Hannity, Throws McConnell Under The Bus

Speaker Paul Ryan sat down with Sean Hannity, the outspoken critic of the “GOP establishment” who has been struggling to advance President Trump‘s agenda.

Hannity noted that during his interview with Ryan back in February, he was told that part of the “200-day agenda” included repeal and replace of Obamacare, vetting refugees, and building the wall.

“The House to its credit has accomplished a lot more than the Senate, I understand that you can claim success, but if Mitch McConnell can’t even appoint two-thirds of the president’s appointees and at nine months in- you have passed 270 some odd bills that he has not taken up,” Hannity told Ryan.

“So the point is we’re on schedule in the House,” Ryan responded. “We passed the health care bill back in May. We passed the repeal and replace of Dodd-Frank. We did Kate’s Law. We did sanctuary cities. We did the military. We did veterans. We did career and technical education reforms. We did school choice for D.C. We did pro-life legislation. We’ve done all these things.”

Ryan then held up a chart showing how his House has passed 337 bills, noting that was more than the previous four presidencies at this time during their tenures. He then showed another chart showing that 274 bills are still waiting in the Senate.

“Is that frustrating for the House? You bet it’s frustrating for the House.” Ryan continued.

He said McConnell and the Senate have some problems like the endless confirmations and the filibuster rules.

“The House is tainted by the Senate,” Hannity reacted.

The Fox News host noted Congress’s 15% approval rating, but gave Ryan credit for sitting down with him while McConnell “won’t even take [his] call.”

“I think the audience that I hear from every day — and they write and they write me on social media and they email and they — they are voicing their frustration… They want to know that this is going to get done,” Hannity said.

“So I actually wasn’t looking for this job,” Ryan responded. “As a person who wasn’t looking for a leadership job, I can tell ya — you don’t want it.”

He clarified what he meant.

“I’m just saying these jobs are a lot harder on the inside than they seem on the outside,” he continued. “Because you have to rally support and get things done and get consensus and deal with the rules and the situations as they exist. Not the world you wish you had, the world you have in front of you. In the House, we’ve been extraordinarily productive. We’ve passed our agenda. We’ve passed all of our appropriations bills ahead of schedule this year for the first time a Republican majority has done it since 2004. So we’re rockin’ and rollin’ in the House.”

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

 

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