“He’s an authoritarian narcissist.”
Strong words. Who said this? Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. And who was he talking about? Former President Donald Trump.
In a recent conversation with Teneo Political Risk Advisory co-president Kevin Kajiwara, Ryan talked about Trump — specifically how Trump likely will lose to Joe Biden in 2024 and, as he has for a while now, will drag Republicans down in elections.
“Look, Trump’s not a conservative,” Ryan said. “He’s an authoritarian narcissist. So I think they basically called him out for that. He’s a populist, authoritarian narcissist. So historically speaking, all of his tendencies are basically where narcissism takes him, which is whatever makes him popular, makes him feel good at any given moment. … He doesn’t think in classical liberal-conservative terms. He thinks in an authoritarian way. And he’s been able to get a big chunk of the Republican base to follow him because he’s the culture warrior.”
This is not the first time Ryan has predicted Trump would lose to Biden. Back in September, during an event at the University of Wisconsin, Ryan said, “I think Biden wins.”
He added, “I think leaders should endeavor to be honest, ethical, moral people who try to set standards for themselves and lead by example across the country. Donald Trump doesn’t try to do any of that. He does the opposite, frankly. So I just don’t think he’s fit for the job here.”
And in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” as far back as a year ago, Ryan told host Jonathan Karl, “I’m proud of the accomplishments (during the Trump administration) — of the tax reform, the deregulation and criminal justice reform — I’m really excited about the judges we got on the bench, not just the Supreme Court, but throughout the judiciary. But I am a Never-Again Trumper. Why? Because I want to win, and we lose with Trump. It was really clear to us in ’18, in ’20 and now in 2022.”
These are just a few examples of the many times Ryan has repeated the same message over the past year.
In his conversation with Kajiwara, Ryan praised fellow Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, whose political careers came to a halt after standing up to and speaking out against Trump.
Ryan said, “And so I think Adam and Liz stepped out of the flow and called it out and, you know, paid for it. Paid for it with their careers. But I think, again, back to my earlier point, I don’t think he is really very good at these jobs unless you’re willing to lose these jobs. And there has to be some line, some principle that is so important to you that you’re just not going to cross so that when you’re brushing your teeth in the morning, look yourself in the mirror, you like what you see.”
He added, “I think Adam and Liz are brushing their teeth, liking what they see. And I think a lot of people in Congress are good friends of mine who would take the vote back if they could, because I think a lot of these members of Congress, on the second impeachment, they thought Trump was dead. They thought after Jan. 6, he wasn’t going to have a comeback. He was dead, so they figured, ‘I’m not going to take this heat, vote against this impeachment, because he’s gone anyway.’ But what’s happened is he’s been resurrected. There’s lots of reasons for that. But he has been. So I think there’s a lot of people who already regret not getting him out of the way when they could have. So I think history will be kind to those people who saw what was happening and called it out, even though it was at the expense of their personal well being.”
How will history treat Ryan? I bring this up because Ryan currently sits on the board of Fox News’ parent company, and the network continues to shill for Trump.
Hat tip to Mediaite’s Ken Meyer for reporting on Ryan’s conversation with Kajiwara. Meyer wrote, “Ryan has been on Fox Corporation’s board of directors since 2019. This has been a recurring point of contention for Trump, his allies, and Trump media backers like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have accused Ryan of meddling behind the scenes.”
Now to other media links and tidbits …
- Terrific work from The Verge: “The Year Twitter Died.” Cool graphics and formatting introduce the equally well-designed and illustrated stories, including “Extremely softcore” by Zoe Schiffer; “The Great Scrollback of Alexandria”; “Goodbye to all that harassment” by Sarah Jeong; and “How Twitter broke the news” by Nilay Patel. The Verge introduces the series by writing, “Twitter was so many things. Elon Musk killed Twitter. First he did it figuratively: firing most employees, destabilizing it as a technology and a business, leaving the platform virtually unusable for those who remained. Then he killed it literally: renaming it X, giving Twitter a final end, after 15 years of chaotic existence. But in death there is understanding. Now that it’s over, we can reckon with what Twitter really was: a news cycle accelerator, a tool of mass harassment, an idealistic money-losing workplace, and an infinite joke machine. 2023 will go down as … the year Twitter died.”
- Speaking of Twitter — well, now X — there was a time Wednesday afternoon, less than an hour maybe, when users who tried to click on links to stories on tweets were sent to a page that said, “This page is down. I scream. You scream. We all scream … for us to fix this page. We’ll stop making jokes and get things up and running.” No word on what happened, but the bugs were worked out by Wednesday afternoon.
- Megan Thee Stallion with words that will warm the hearts of journalists.
- Good stuff from my Poynter colleague Kristen Hare: “5 local news experts on the best and worst of 2023.”
- The New Yorker’s Michael Luo with “The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2023.”
- Actor Andre Braugher — best known for his work in TV’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” — has died after a brief illness. He was 61. Here is The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg with “Andre Braugher Was an Intensely Dramatic, Intensely Funny Actor’s Actor.” And here’s a good piece from NPR’s Eric Deggans: “Andre Braugher was a pioneer in playing smart, driven, flawed Black characters.”
- Politico’s Playbook reports that Laura Bassett will cover the 2024 election for New York Magazine and The Cut. She previously was editor-in-chief of Jezebel.
- Enrique Acevedo, anchor of the news program “En Punto” on Televisa, writes an opinion piece for The Washington Post: “My Trump interview had a purpose: Giving Latinos a chance to hear him.”
- “NBA on TNT” host Ernie Johnson was deservedly inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame this week and here’s a part of his speech, which is just terrific.
- New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand with “Keyshawn Johnson opens up about life after ESPN, what Skip Bayless is really like.”
- For ProPublica, Brett Murphy and Kirsten Berg with “The Judiciary Has Policed Itself for Decades. It Doesn’t Work.”
- Fun piece from The Ringer’s Adam Nayman about movies: “The Best Shots of 2023.”
One more thing
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