Paul Ryan Is Reaping the Republican Whirlwind (& conspiracy theories)

New Republic
Paul Ryan Is Reaping the Republican Whirlwind

The House speaker is getting sucked in to the kind of conspiracy theory that Republicans normally foment against Hillary Clinton.

BY BRIAN BEUTLER
October 14, 2016

There could be no better karmic end to this election than Donald Trump placing Republican leaders at the center of the kind of conspiracy theory those same Republicans typically foment against Hillary Clinton, while she contentedly allows them to spread.

On Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan told Republican members of Congress he will no longer campaign with or do surrogacy work for Trump, and Trump has responded by insinuating that Ryan is part of a conspiracy to deny Trump the presidency and, by extension, to deny Trump supporters the champion they’ve staked their livelihoods on.

At a rally on Wednesday, Trump complained that Ryan didn’t call him to congratulate him for his performance in the second debate. “Wouldn’t you think that Paul Ryan would call and say, ‘Good going’?” he asked. “He doesn’t do that. There is a whole deal going on there. There is a whole deal going on and we’re going to figure it out. I always figure things out. But there’s a whole sinister deal going on.”

It should go without saying that there is no secret bipartisan cabal working to defeat Trump, and that Ryan in particular has humiliated himself repeatedly this election for the sake of his party, his policy agenda, and his own political hide. He has attacked Clinton at every turn of every one of her controversies; he is a strong supporter of voter suppression laws that help Republicans like Trump shape the electorate in ways that favor them; and as speaker, he has stood as an important bulwark against expanding voting rights.

Trump’s innuendo, in other words, is totally without merit. It is also richly deserved.

More:
https://newrepublic.com/article/137794/paul-ryan-reaping-republican-whirlwind