Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) Wednesday night told WISN 12 News that former President Donald Trump is causing Republicans to lose elections.
Reporter Caroline Reinwald asked, “Republicans didn’t see that red wave like they were predicting. Why do you think that is, and what kind of lessons do you think Republican leadership should be taking away from that?”
Ryan said, “I think we’re going to have to do a lot of soul searching and head scratching, looking through and parsing the numbers as to why we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked to.”
He added, “I think Trump’s kind of a drag on our ticket. I think Donald Trump gives us problems politically. We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot or in office. I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he’s a drag on our office, on our races.”
Reinwald asked, “What do you think’s going to happen if Donald Trump announces he’s going to run for president again?”
Ryan said, “I mean, I assume he’s going to announce, but I honestly don’t think he’ll get the nomination at the end of the day. We want to win. We want to win the White House, and we know with Trump we’re so much more likely to lose.”
He added, “It’s really clear to me, and the evidence is pretty stark, that if we have a nominee not named Trump, we’re so much more likely to win the White House than if our candidate’s named Trump.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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