Paul D. Ryan, the former Republican speaker of the House, re-entered the political area on Thursday night time with a speech obliquely criticizing Donald J. Trump and warning Republicans that the solely viable future for the fractured occasion was one unattached to the former president.
“Here’s one reality we have to face,” Mr. Ryan mentioned throughout a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. “If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere.”
Mr. Ryan mentioned he had discovered it “horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end,” though he didn’t particularly confer with the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6 or to Mr. Trump’s repeated election falsehoods.
He added that Republican voters would “not be impressed by the sight of yes-men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago.”
The former speaker tempered his criticism by avoiding any point out of Mr. Trump by title — besides to say that the former president’s model of populism, when “tethered to conservative principles,” had led to financial development, and to credit score him with bringing new voters to the occasion.
A senior adviser for Mr. Trump, Jason Miller, responded to early excerpts from the speech with a terse brushoff: “Who is Paul Ryan?” he mentioned in a textual content message.
