Former House speaker Paul Ryan has joined in on GOP criticism of Donald Trump after the party’s predicted midterms “red wave” turned out to be anything but.
Mr Ryan, the last Republican to serve as speaker of the House, reacted to Tuesday’s election results by calling for his party to nominate anyone other than Mr Trump when it comes time to pick a candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
In an interview with Wisconsin television station WISN, Mr Ryan said the former president’s continued presence on the political scene could be why Republicans underperformed in the midterms.
"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," Mr Ryan said.
"I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he's a drag on our office, on our races."
The former congressman said he assumes Mr Trump will run for president once more in the 2024 election but he predicted Mr Trump won’t appear on a general election ballot.
"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 the White House and we know with Trump we're so much more likely to lose,” he said, pointing to the different results for candidates who were closely aligned with Mr Trump versus those GOP candidates who were not seen as the ex-president’s allies.
"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," he continued, adding later that the GOP has to offer the US “a really clear and compelling choice as to how our party is ripe and ready to solve big problems confronting the country”.
