House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan suggested Wednesday that House Speaker Paul Ryan is retiring from Congress at the end of the year because he has completed what he came to Washington two decades ago to do.
“John Boehner stepped down after his papal conversion. What’s the conversion for Paul Ryan now?” Fox News host Bill Hemmer asked Jordan, a Republican from Ohio.
“You would have to ask Paul. I know, again, it’s a tough job and I know that one of his big achievements and big focuses in his time in Congress has been trying to get the tax reform done — trying to get tax cuts done for the American family. He was able to accomplish that. We were all able to accomplish that so maybe that’s the thing he wanted to leave on,” Jordan said.
In February, Jordan said Ryan was facing a frustrated conservative base in the House after it passed a government funding agreement that raised budget caps by $300 billion over two years. Jordan said the funding levels were “not consistent” with GOP principles to cut spending.
“Do I think the speaker has problems? Yes, I do,” Jordan told CNN.
Jordan has been floated by fellow caucus members as the ideal candidate for the speakership, but does not have a pathway to the votes needed to secure the position.
He received one vote for the position in January 2015 and two votes again in January 2017.
Jordan told Hemmer on Wednesday that it is “too early to talk about” Ryan’s successor.
“What I do know is whoever is in leadership should be focused on one thing: doing what we told the American people we were going to do, let’s be honest. That didn’t happen a few weeks ago when this omnibus spending bill was passed,” he added.
