Former House speaker Paul Ryan has said that “anybody” but former president Donald Trump could win the White House for the Republicans in 2024.
In an interview on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” programme on Tuesday, Mr Ryan said: “We won’t nominate Trump because we want to win.”
“The new swing voter in America is the suburban voter. And it’s really clear that the suburban voter doesn’t like Trump. We are so much more likely to lose with Trump because of the fact that he is not popular with the suburban voter. Why would we want to risk giving a nomination to somebody that we know-we haven’t... my party hasn’t lost this much this fast than we have with Trump.”
“We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in a span of two years. I don’t want to repeat that. I want to win. And that’s why I think we’re going to nominate somebody who can win.”
The former House speaker has been one of the most high-profile Republicans to have dissented against Mr Trump.
In June he defended the vote of South Carolina Congressman Tom Rice to impeach Mr Trump after January 6 and scorched members of his party who did not.
Mr Ryan said there are a host of potential candidates from the Republicans including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and former vice president Mike Pence.
“I think we have got a great stable of candidates, any of whom are really capable of not just getting the nomination but winning the general election,” he was quoted as saying by Axios.
Last week Mr Ryan said in an interview with consulting firm Teneo that the former president is “much more likely to lose the White House than anybody else running for president on our side of the aisle”.
The former speaker retired from Congress in 2019, but remained close to Mr Trump during his final two years in office.
The two have fallen out after Mr Ryan supported calls for Mr Trump’s impeachment.
