With GOP presidential hopefuls set to square off in Las Vegas, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday quashed speculation from House colleagues and the media that he could be drafted as the party’s nominee in the event of a deadlocked convention next summer.
{mosads}“That is ridiculous talk. That’s just dumb speculation,” Ryan said at a Politico breakfast. “I’m doing this job.
“You guys should just stop all that speculation.”
Several House Republicans told The Hill last week they see a scenario in which Ryan, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, could end up winning the nomination if no candidate wraps up a majority of delegates by the time the convention rolls around next July.
One of those lawmakers even suggested that Ryan was angling to be the GOP’s consensus pick in the event of a contested convention in Cleveland. Ryan raised eyebrows, the lawmaker said, when the new Speaker gave his “Confident America” speech at the Library of Congress, where he vowed to lay out a bold, conservative GOP agenda in 2016.
Ryan also harshly criticized GOP front-runner Donald Trump for proposing that all Muslims be banned from entering the United States in the wake of recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
“I really think the Speaker is setting himself up to be considered for the nominee in the case there is a brokered convention,” the GOP lawmaker said.
The possibility of a brokered convention was discussed at a dinner last week attended by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other top GOP figures, according to The Washington Post.
But earlier at Tuesday’s Politico event, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tamped down talk of such a scenario next summer.
“It hasn’t happened in a very long time and I think it’s highly unlikely to happen,” McConnell said.