Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took several jabs at former President Trump during an address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Thursday, lamenting that voters “will not be impressed by the sight of yes-men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago.”
Ryan also referred to the end of Trump’s presidency as “dishonorable and disgraceful”
“Even worse, it was horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end,” Ryan said, adding that the 2020 elections had left Republicans “powerless” in Washington.
The Wisconsin Republican also pointed to “fiascos” of Trump’s “own making,” including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryan, however, he also gave Trump credit for attracting new voters to the Republican Party.
“Look, to his credit, Donald Trump brought many new voters into our party, and we want them to stay,” Ryan said. “He’s a former president now, but the issues and values that held so many Republican voters and turned so many Democrats into Republicans — those issues and values still matter.”
Ryan also took shots at President Biden, saying he was more focused on uniting Democrats than he was the country.
When speaking on the topic of “identity politics,” Ryan condemned the Democratic Party for adopting “pretentious academic theory” into its “orthodoxy.”
“Everything has to be about race, gender and class. Every person is just a stand-in for one group interest or another. That’s identity politics, constantly accusing, suspecting claiming victimhood, pulling us apart from one another,” Ryan said.