Paul Ryan is a very good actor. The Speaker of the House has staked his reputation, and his campaigns, on being a wonky, thoughtful Republican, conservative to be sure but a man of integrity, driven by careful consideration.
It's a great cover for a man without a spine.
Yesterday, after former FBI director James Comey's damning congressional testimony – Comey said the president pressed him to back off his bureau's investigation into Trump team ties with Russia; Comey was also fired by the president – Ryan held a press conference wherein he made excuses for the beleaguered kleptocrat-in-chief, saying perhaps Trump is in this mess of his own making because "he's just new to this" and perhaps didn't know the appropriate protocol.
Well, there's one reason among a thousand not to put an inexperienced buffoon in office. The president of the United States should not be "new to this" when "this" includes the basic duties and obligations of the office. And even a very inexperienced but basically competent president would listen to the instructions given to him; Trump notoriously has the attention span of a baby gnat, so easily distracted and unable to digest any more than the most simplistic information that our NATO allies were instructed to give him the Cliffs Notes version of international relations.
And of course, as former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, another well-regarded civil servant fired by Trump, pointed out, the president found ample time in his campaign to criticize former president Bill Clinton for meeting with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch while his wife, Hillary Clinton, was running for president. How could he have identified that as a breach of protocol with at least the perception of a serious ethical problem, but not his own actions?
Trump, we know, plays by his own set of rules, or simply doesn't believe the rules apply to him at all. But why is Paul Ryan defending him? Why would Ryan suggest it's OK that Trump doesn't know something he clearly does – and clearly should?
This is the same Paul Ryan who, just a few months ago, proudly put forward a bill that would allow states to mandate drug testing for anyone receiving federal unemployment benefits – fail and lose necessary financial assistance to keep you afloat while you're looking for work. "I'm new to this" probably won't fly in the unemployment office when a newly unemployed person is getting kicked off the rolls for smoking a joint three weeks ago; why should it be an excuse for the person holding the highest executive office in the country violating what are clear and crucial basic protocols?
Ryan's defense of Trump is pathetic. And it's been pathetic. During the campaign, Trump habitually insulted Ryan, calling him "a man who doesn't know how to win (including a failed run four years ago)" and "very weak and ineffective." But when Ryan was asked in July 2016 how he could support a candidate “who is openly racist and has said Islamophobic statements, wants to shut down our borders,” he responded, “That basically means you’re going to help elect Hillary Clinton,” as if hatred and bigotry are OK if the end result is getting your party elected. Remember this is the same Ryan who said Trump's attack on a federal judge was the "textbook definition of a racist comment," but did not pull his endorsement. Then, after the now-famous video of Trump bragging about grabbing women by the pussy surfaced and several women accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault, Ryan, a champion of traditional family values, tried to gingerly distance himself by announcing he would no longer defend the then-nominee, but still, he refused to pull his endorsement.
Looks like he's back to defending Trump.
Just like the potential of the GOP winning the election was more important than taking a principled stand against a man who stood accused of, and himself bragged about, sexual assault, maintaining GOP power is apparently still more important than taking a principled stand for independent investigative agencies – and for a presidency where the leader of the free world isn't thought to be either beholden or cozied up to a hostile foreign power, nor using his office to enrich himself and his family.
All of this even though Trump has no problem throwing Ryan under the bus when it suits him. After the GOP’s first failed attempt to repeal Obamacare this year, Trump tweeted that his followers should watch Judge Jeanine Pirro on Fox. Pirro then opened her show calling for Ryan to step down as Speaker. Of course Sean Spicer insisted it was just a coincidence and Trump was just "a fan of the show.”And then like a good lapdog, Ryan echoed that sentiment. “He actually was very apologetic,” Ryan said. “He said, 'I had no idea she was going to talk about that. I thought she was going to talk about something else.'”
Ryan is not a stupid person. And even though I find his politics abhorrent, he has gone out of his way to pitch himself as a fundamentally decent, principled man who believes in the American system of democratic governance.
Thanks to Trump, it's now obvious that Ryan isn't any kind of upstanding man; he's a spineless, transparent little jellyfish. Kudos to him, though – he had a lot of us fooled. And it was a good act while it lasted.
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Jill Filipovic is a contributing writer for cosmopolitan.com. She is the author of OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind and The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. A weekly CNN columnist and a contributing writer for the New York Times, she is also a lawyer.
