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 "Let me be clear: I do not want nor will I accept the nomination
of our party," Ryan said in remarks at the Republican National
Committee's Washington headquarters.
Ryan, the top elected Republican in Washington and the party's 2012
vice presidential candidate, has been the subject of persistent
speculation that he could emerge as the nominee if an impasse over
the party's pick develops at the July 18-21 Republican National
Convention in Cleveland.
Ryan has repeatedly said he is not interested in entering the
presidential race, but advocates for such a scenario have pointed
out that he was cool to becoming House speaker until he was finally
persuaded to take over from John Boehner last year.
Some recent steps taken by Ryan generated a new round of political
chatter, such as his release of a campaign-style video and a trip to
Israel.
Ryan, who will preside over the Cleveland convention, said his goal
is to ensure there is integrity in the process.
 He said the 2016 nominee should be someone who has actually run this
year and said he would urge delegates to pass a rule limiting the
nomination only to actual candidates.
"I should not be considered. Period. End of story," he said.
Still, Ryan offered his views on the state of the race, complaining
that "insults get more ink than ideas" and that Republicans still
owe it to the voters to show what they would do if given a mandate.
"I believe that we can once again be an optimistic party that is
defined by our belief in the limitless possibility of our people,"
he said.
Republicans who see a disaster looming in the Nov. 8 presidential
election if Trump or U.S. Senator Cruz of Texas is the nominee have
harbored hopes of drafting a popular party figure like Ryan or 2012
candidate Mitt Romney.
For that to happen, no candidate would have won the 1,237 delegates
required to win the nomination on the first ballot at the
convention, and delegates would have to approve a consensus
alternative on a second or subsequent ballot.
The latest national Reuters/Ipsos poll said Trump still leads Cruz
among Republican voters but that his advantage has been narrowed.
Trump had 41 percent support to 35 percent for Cruz of 598
Republicans surveyed from April 8-12.
In the Democratic race, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont each had 48
percent support, according to responses from 719 Democrats polled.
The two have been tied frequently since February.
Ryan's announcement could give some hope to long-shot Republican
candidate John Kasich, who portrayed himself as an antidote to what
he called the divisive politics of Trump and Cruz.
[to top of second column] |
KASICH CRITICIZES "PATH OF DARKNESS"
In a speech in New York City, Kasich criticized his rivals as
wanting to take the United States down a "path of darkness" and
offered himself as a more optimistic alternative, with a week to go
before New York state's Republican and Democratic primaries on April
19.
Kasich - running a distant third behind Trump and Cruz and with no
chance of capturing the Republican nomination unless he can emerge
from a contested convention - did not mention Trump and Cruz by name
but left no doubt as to who he was talking about.
"Some who feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us
and exploit it feed their own insatiable desire for fame or
attention. That could drive America down into a ditch, not make us
great again," Kasich said, referring to Trump's signature line.
Trump is favored to win the April 19 primary in his home state. He
holds a huge lead in opinion polls there, with Kasich running a
distant second and Cruz in third place.
A victory for Trump would help tamp down concerns among supporters
that he is suddenly vulnerable after Cruz beat him in Wisconsin last
week and won all Republican delegates in Colorado on Saturday.
At a rally in Rome, New York, Trump blamed the Republican National
Committee for setting up a system in which Colorado Republicans
picked their delegates without letting people vote.
"The rules are no good when you don’t have democracy," he said,
reiterating his allegation that the delegate selection process was
"rigged."
Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News on
Monday that the process for choosing delegates had been set by
states for more than a year and was no secret.
In some good news for Trump on Tuesday, he was formally declared the
winner of Missouri's Republican primary, which was held on March 15.
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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