Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan called Donald Trump an “authoritarian narcissist” and praised former Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for calling him out on it.
“Trump’s not a conservative. He’s an authoritarian narcissist. So I think they basically called him out for that,” Ryan told Teneo Political Risk Advisory Co-President Kevin Kajiwara after he asked about Cheney and Kinzinger.
“He’s a populist, authoritarian narcissist,” Ryan continued. 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.”
“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,” Ryan added.
Both Cheney and Kinzinger left Congress after criticizing Trump. Cheney lost her GOP primary to Trump sycophant Harriet Hageman while Kinzinger decided not to seek reelection.
Ryan, who currently serves on the board at Fox News, also told Teneo that more Republicans in Congress wished they had been brave enough to stand against Trump and are now regretting their vote not to impeach him after Jan. 6.
“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,” Ryan said. “They thought after January 6th, 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.”
Ryan continued: “I think there’s a lot of people who already regret not getting him out of 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.”
