Speaker Ryan Continues To Arrange Deck Chairs On Trump Titanic

By: Meredith Kelly

Speaker Ryan rolled out his healthcare taskforce report today, in his latest installment of rearranging deck chairs on the Trump Titanic. This represents the fifth in a series of agenda rollouts that Ryan has shouted into the wind. They have been met with some skepticism, lots of criticism . . . but mostly? More questions about Speaker Ryan’s reaction to the latest offensive, divisive statements and reckless policies from presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and about Ryan’s apparent willingness to put party over country in endorsing him.

• The Atlantic, 6/20: Headline: “Paul Ryan Has a Plan, But No One Is Listening.”

• The Atlantic, 6/20: “At this rate, Ryan should consider not even bothering to prepare remarks for the rollouts of the final two agenda pieces (health care and taxes). He might as well just wait and see what kind of verbal atrocities Trump commits during those news cycles.”

• CNN, 5/27: Headline: “Trump casts shadow over Ryan’s policy goals.”

• CNN, 5/27: “Earlier this week, a press briefing with reporters was supposed to focus on the House GOP election-year agenda that he has so carefully crafted. Instead, Ryan and his staff had to push back on press reports suggesting that a Trump endorsement was imminent.”

• Washington Post’s Daily 202, 6/20: “Big picture: The conversation about Ryan is completely dominated by Trump. Over the last seven days, there have been more than 198,000 tweets mentioning Ryan. More than 68,000 of them also mentioned Trump, according to our analytics partners at Zignal Labs. The connection was even greater in news articles: The Speaker was mentioned in 13,000 stories over the last week, and more than 10,000 also mentioned Trump.”

• Washington Post, 6/7: “The diversion on Tuesday was brief. Reporters immediately questioned Ryan on Trump’s recent attacks on the federal judge handling a civil case against him, accusing the judge of bias due to his Mexican heritage.”

• Morning Consult, 6/7: “Top Democrats said Tuesday that despite House Speaker Paul Ryan’s efforts to roll out a legislative package to combat poverty, the House GOP’s agenda is inseparable from the party’s likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.”