CNN interviewer Dana Bash, with a laugh, then told him, “Yes, but normal guys don’t sleep in their offices”.
Advertisement
“I don’t think we throw any Republicans under the bus”, Ryan said.
“He tried to go around Congress with an executive order to rewrite laws unilaterally”.
Newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan says he doesn’t see a way the Republican-controlled Congress can cooperate with President Obama on reforming US immigration policy.
Ryan was the overall people pleaser, with establishment Republicans nodding in approval at Mitt Romney’s former vice presidential pick, and conservative Republicans liking the Wisconsin congressman enough not to get in the way.
When asked to comment on the statements about immigration, a White House spokesman referred to a news briefing Friday by Josh Earnest, the press secretary, who described the speaker’s stance as “a source of deep disappointment”.
“Well, if [Speaker Ryan] is going to offer as he says “movement conservative” bold visions, yes, the answer is that’s correct [there will be more fighting over ideology]”.
Ryan suggested, under his leadership, he wanted to take more policy risks.
In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Mr. Boehner acknowledged the difficulty Mr. Ryan would have to transition from being speaker to becoming president, but said it was a necessary sacrifice for Mr. Ryan to make in order to help fix a fractured party. “I knew he didn’t want to do it. …”
Ryan repeatedly made clear that he will take a different approach than Boehner, whose nearly five years as speaker were fraught with Republican Party infighting. “And that is something that so many of us, myself included, have been concerned about the way this place has been run”. Rather, his interviewers treated him deferentially, even affectionately, while presenting him as someone who was generally well-liked among Democrats and Republicans and who was impressive both as a thinker and a policy maker.
‘I’m going to keep doing it, ‘ Ryan said. I’m not changing that.
But he noted he’ll have a challenge in scrubbing the smell of cigarette smoke out of the office after years of occupancy by chain smoker Boehner.
As part of his plan to technically still live in Wisconsin, Ryan said he’ll continue to bunk in his Capitol Hill office.
The fact that few Speakers have gone on to clinch the presidency is perhaps another hint that Mr Ryan has never really coveted the nation’s highest office, a message he seems to have touted, but few have heard.
Advertisement
“About 35 minutes”, he said.
