Paul Ryan predicts how 2024 election could end badly for Republicans
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is predicting how the race to the White House could end badly for Republicans, and it primarily has to do with one person: Donald Trump.
Speaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Tuesday, Ryan said Republicans will lose the presidency if former President Donald Trump is the nominee and encouraged voters to get behind someone else in order to defeat President Joe Biden.
"The party that puts the first fresh face forward wins this election," Ryan said. "If Democrats somehow swipe out Biden with I don't know who, they're going to win. If we swap out Trump, which I think is easier to do, frankly, we're going to win."
Many of the Republican candidates who will participate in the second presidential debate Wednesday could beat Biden in 2024, Ryan said, but he added not entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, which received laughter from the audience.
February will also be a key month for the GOP to convince voters to get behind another candidate, Ryan said. That's when Super Tuesday falls, the single biggest voting day in the Republican presidential race, when more than a dozen states hold primaries. Wisconsin's primary is April 2.
Ryan, who represented southeastern Wisconsin for two decades in Congress and served as speaker from 2015 to 2019, also stressed the importance of suburban voters in battleground states, such as the WOW counties (Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington) in Wisconsin.
"Do you think those suburban voters like Donald Trump more since Jan. 6?" Ryan said. "I mean, good grief. They didn't vote for him last time, they're not going to vote for him again."
Looming Government Shutdown
Ryan also expressed doubts Republicans in Washington D.C. will reach an agreement by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown.
The last shutdown occurred in 2018-2019 when Ryan was speaker, lasting 36 days.
Ryan said current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made a "great deal" with Biden on the nation's debt ceiling but "a handful of Republican members" in the House Freedom Caucus decided to "blow it up."
He blamed members in the caucus for not offering alternative solutions, which he said makes Republicans "look like fools."
"It's nihilism, is what it is," Ryan said.