Monday on his Fox Business Network program, “Lou Dobbs Tonight” host Lou Dobbs took aim at House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his reluctance to vigorously support presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and for touting his policy proposals ahead of getting behind Trump, who Dobbs said was chosen by voters of his party.
Dobbs described Ryan as an “embarrassment” and an “eager tool of the establishment.”
Transcript as follows:
Well, a few thoughts now as we approach the Republican National Convention and that irritating noise that seems to grow louder as we head into next week. That noise, that noise is speaker Paul Ryan, I’m pretty sure squawking about his agenda. Yes, he has an agenda. It’s not that of the party. It is his own agenda. He is working hard to promote not the convention but himself.
And now he has scheduled himself to deliver a speech at the convention. And I know, you are passionately interested in whether man who has been speaker from host nine months now has to say, a man who joined amnesty and open borders advocate Congressman Luis Gutierrez and the national campaign for the Chamber of Commerce, driving the solution to our illegal immigration crisis and who supports free trade at any cost as well, a man who has moved three whole bills into law over his 17-year career. That is so impressive, don’t you think?
Now, according to one of his very top aides, the speaker is actually writing what will be an entire whole 10-minute address. He is writing that all by himself. I’m not sure whether that 10 minutes will rank up there with the Gettysburg Address, JFK’s inaugural or FDR’s fireside chats. In that 10 minutes of pure political melodrama and electricity I’m sure we can be sure to Ryan will call on conservatives to unite around Republican candidates saying quote, ‘I want to talk about our ideas, our solutions, how our party should unite around our common principles and how we apply those principles to problems.’
Yes, that’s a little obvious, a little formulaic but all right Ryan at least least is talking about unity even if it — he can’t bring himself to utter two words, ‘Donald Trump,’ or another for words, ‘Make America great again,’ or just two more after that, ‘America first.’
But to date he’s been far more divisive than his words and actions though Ryan has spent more of his breath slamming the Republican nominee — the one chosen by record number of Republican voters. And all the while Ryan pushing his own certainly irrelevant agenda instead of working to unify the party behind Trump and Trump’s agenda that shared by millions and millions of voters.
Ryan is proving himself to be nothing more than an eager tool of the establishment and for the big donors like Paul Singer or Charles Koch or the most powerful lobby in D.C., the Chamber of Commerce. And that appears to be something of a disappointment for some voters in Wisconsin’s first congressional district.
In fact, a poll touted by his opponent in the Republican primary, Paul Nehlen, shows the speaker support his home district has fallen to 43 percent. In my opinion, Speaker Ryan has become something of a tiresome tremendous embarrassment for the Republican Party. That’s just my opinion. Ryan is playing duke to power and fool for all this country to witness.
Ryan has made himself a sad spectacle but we can all take a little comfort that he won’t stop the celebratory GOP convention for more than 10 minutes. Yes, it could have been far worse.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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