Dear Commons Community,

Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan tore into Donald Trump yesterday, saying he won’t be voting for him and calling out his lack of character and principles.

“If you put yourself above the Constitution, as he has done, I think that makes you unfit for office,” he told Fox News host Neil Cavuto.

Cavuto asked if that was because of “the whole Jan. 6 thing.”

“That’s a part of it,” Ryan said. “I think it really is just character at the end of the day, and the fact that if you’re willing to put yourself above the Constitution ― an oath you swear when you take federal office, whether as president or a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution ― and you’re willing to suborn it to yourself, I think that makes you unfit for office.”

Ryan also blamed Trump for GOP election losses in recent years.

“He’s cost us a lot of seats,” Ryan said. “He cost us the Senate twice. He cost us the House because he is nominating, he is pushing through the primaries people who cannot win general elections but who pledge fealty to him.”

Ryan, who added that he doesn’t support President Joe Biden either, said voters have been given “terrible choices” for the Nov. 5 election.

“In a country with 350 million people, this is the choice we have?” Ryan said. “I, like the majority of Americans, wish we had a different choice.”

Ryan lamented that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary race in March yet continues to get a sizable protest vote in the later primaries, was not going to be the Republican nominee.

“She’d probably win this thing by 12 points,” he said.

Ryan said he will write in a “conservative Republican” in November but added that he hasn’t selected that person yet.

Tell it like it is, Paul!

Tony

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