Newt Gingrich Takes Paul Ryan to Task Over Current Speaker���s Non-Support of Trump

 A former Speaker of the House had some tough words for the current Speaker of the House over the latter���s expressed unwillingness to support the presumptive nominee of the party to which each congressman belongs.

Since Donald Trump���s victory in Indiana on Tuesday, which prompted both Ted Cruz and John Kasich to exit the race and essentially guarantee that Trump will emerge from the GOP convention in July as the party���s nominee, many high-profile Republicans have begun publicly expressing either their willingness to support the oft-controversial candidate, or their declaration that they will not support him. While many of those who have gone on record saying they will not support Trump...or will not be attending the Republican convention in Cleveland, which is regarded as tantamount to the same thing���are former Republican political leaders of great prestige, like Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, current Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said that he, too, will not be endorsing Trump; it is a stunning declaration from a sitting speaker, and something that earned him the ire of ex-speaker Gingrich.

Appearing Thursday night on Fox News Channel���s ���Hannity��� program, Gingrich said the following about Ryan:

���[I]n the case of Paul Ryan he made a big mistake today and he needs to understand this. He is the Speaker of the House. He has an obligation to unify the party. He has an obligation to reach out. Obviously he and Donald Trump are going to have disagreements. Some of them will work out and some of them they won���t. That���s fine. Our constitution provides that speakers and presidents can fight, but I think he sends the wrong signal and a signal which I think endangers the House Republicans and endangers the Senate Republicans.���

Gingrich went on to say that ������Paul Ryan has some obligation institutionally to be responsive to the fact that the people of the party he belongs to have chosen a nominee,��� and, for many critics of the postures assumed by Ryan, the Bushes, Romney, and others, this is, perhaps, the most significant issue. The party voters have made their choice, and vast numbers of the Republican electorate have gone on record in the preceding days to say that it is the duty of the party���s leaders, particularly those who are presently in office, to make official not only their support, but their enthusiastic support, for the people���s choice.

As it stands right now, Bob Dole is the only other living former nominee of the Republican Party who will be attending the convention in Cleveland this July.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr.