‘Lame duck failure’: Trump assails Paul Ryan after book details criticism
President Donald Trump late Thursday blasted former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan as a “lame duck failure” who lost the majority because of “poor leadership and bad timing.”
Trump’s three-tweet tirade against the former highest ranking member of his own party in Congress followed the publication of book excerpts detailing Ryan’s negative views of Trump during the 2016 campaign and the first two years of his presidency.
“Paul Ryan, the failed V.P. candidate & former Speaker of the House, whose record of achievement was atrocious (except during my first two years as President), ultimately became a long running lame duck failure, leaving his Party in the lurch both as a fundraiser & leader,” Trump tweeted.
Trump continued: “When Mitt chose Paul I told people that’s the end of that Presidential run. He quit Congress because he didn’t know how to Win. They gave me standing O’s in the Great State of Wisconsin, & booed him off the stage. He promised me the Wall, & failed (happening anyway!).”
“…He had the Majority & blew it away with his poor leadership and bad timing. Never knew how to go after the Dems like they go after us. Couldn’t get him out of Congress fast enough!” Trump wrote.
The new book, “American Carnage” by Tim Alberta, POLITICO Magazine’s chief political correspondent, is set to be released Tuesday. It details heavy criticism of the president from prominent Republican figures.
Amid the initial fallout from the “Access Hollywood” scandal during the 2016 presidential election, Ryan asked then-chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus to remove Trump from the race. Ryan also disinvited Trump from a political rally in his own district after the tape’s release.
“I told myself I gotta have a relationship with this guy to help him get his mind right,” Ryan told Alberta in another excerpt released by the Washington Post. “Because, I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government … I wanted to scold him all the time.”
Ryan also said that he saw his retirement from the House in 2018 as an escape hatch after working with the president for two years.
“We’ve gotten so numbed by it all,” Ryan said. “Not in government, but where we live our lives, we have a responsibility to try and rebuild. Don’t call a woman a ‘horse face.’ Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t cheat on anything. Be a good person. Set a good example.”
Source:politico.com