House Speaker Paul Ryan is going to resign within “30 to 60 days,” Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei, a Republican from Carson City, told reporters on Monday.
That means by May 28th, Americans will have a new Speaker of the House: Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the GOP leader targeted in an alt-left terror attack during congressional baseball practice last year that left him grievously wounded.
“The rumor mill is that Paul Ryan is getting ready to resign in the next 30 to 60 days and that Steve Scalise will be the new Speaker,” Amodei said to The Reno Gazette-Journal, referring to talk among top Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“Now that is interesting because nobody has talked to members [of the U.S. House] on how they are going to vote [on new leadership]. Now, maybe they have talked to all of the members but me. I don’t know, so that is the rumor mill from last week,” Amodei told the Gazzette-Journal.
Ryan has been subjected to withering critics from both the left and the right for years. Conservative critics have often accused Ryan of being a RINO — Republican In Name Only — and have loudly demanded his ouster for being too liberal.
Ryan’s office has strongly denied the rumors that he’s prepared to quit. “The speaker is not resigning,” AshLee Strong, Ryan’s spokesman, insisted to CBS News on Monday.
Why have the rumors started, then?
“I don’t know. If I was just guessing, he wanted to do the tax-cut bill,” Amodei said, bringing up the former Speaker of the House John Boehner’s resignation.
“John Boehner said the same thing: ‘Hey, I checked all of the boxes I thought were important and I’m moving on to whatever else.'” Amodei said.
This isn’t an isolated rumor. For months, Ryan’s future as House Speaker has repeatedly been speculated on by political experts. His strained relationship with President Donald Trump and his upcoming reelection battle have both led to repeated rumors that he’s had his “eyes on the exits” — rumors he’s repeatedly denied in public.
“Look, if we’re doing fine I have no plans of going anywhere any time soon,” Ryan told CBS News on Jan. 21. “But that’s something that my wife and I always decide in late spring of the election year.”
What do you think?
Should Ryan resign as speaker in the next 60 days, or should he stay and continue to lead Republicans in Congress?
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Should Paul Ryan resign?
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