The Pretrumpian Period of Republican politics may now seem slightly more distant than the end of the dinosaurs, but conservative paleontologists have unearthed a recording from that period when Paul Ryan was providing an “alternative” to Trump’s blatant racism, open misogyny, and mean-spirited nonsense.
House Speaker Paul Ryan apparently told fellow Republicans a few weeks before Election Day that he would not "defend Donald Trump — not now, not in the future," according to an audio recording published by far-right website Breitbart News on Monday.
It’s funny, because it’s just as un-true as everything else Paul Ryan says. Now that the Trumperoid has fallen and the idea that conservative economics existed as anything but a series of talking points that no one believed is extinct, there’s no more loyal servant of the the Donald Trump—Steve King—David Duke party than Paul Ryan.
Since Inauguration Day, Ryan has repeatedly sided with Trump, praising his court-rejected executive order on immigration, and declining to call for an independent investigation into the White House's perceived Russia ties.
But other than dragging this artifact back into the light and marveling about how out-of-date it seems, what’s the point of a pro-Trump media source like Breitbart attacking Ryan now?
They have their reasons.
It’s a convenient time to attack Ryan. By attacking both both the Speaker and the healthcare bill, Donald Trump’s in-house news service sets up two possible futures. If the healthcare bill seems to be in serious trouble, they can push it aside and just blame it all on Paul.
However, if what still passes for a conservative wing in the Republican Party lies down and decides to go along with the bill, that’s even better. Breitbart can suddenly discover not just a miracle of Republican unity, but absolute proof that what brought the party together was the uniter-not-a-divider super leadership power of Donald Trump.
In either case, the center of power in the party moves away from Ryan and toward Trump—putting both Steve Bannon and Breitbart even more in the driver’s seat.
Really, in the modern Republican Party Trump may not win every fight — but everyone else is guaranteed to lose.