of course, on the republicanside, donald trump is heavily favored to win tonight'sprimary. new york is his home town,and he's been married to many of its voters. ( laughter )but trump's victory may not be enough to avoid a contestedconvention. that is where no candidate hasno majority of delegates, freeing up those delegates tovote for anyone they think would be most appealing to theamerican public.
so the next g.o.p. presidentialnominee could be a "gilmore girls" reboot. but the hot name on a lot ofrepublican lips right now is speaker of the house, paul ryan. they believe-- one personclapping, yes. they believe he would be abetter alternative to trump and cruz, more likely to attractmoderate. voters and less likely to hauntyour robitussin-induced nightmares.
( applause )good, handsome man. he's a handsome man. but ryan keeps insisting he willnot run. >> so let me be clear. i do not want, nor will i acceptthe nomination for our party. count me out. i should not be considered,period, end of story. >> stephen: okay, end of story,for more on the story, let's go live via satellite to "lateshow" speaker paul ryan expert,
speaker paul ryan. ( cheers and applause )speaker ryan, thanks so much for joining me. >> thanks for having me,stephen. good to be with you. >> stephen: i'm i'm notmistaken, this is your first appearance on a late night show. >> it is. >> stephen: i'm honored.
that's what we call in ourbusiness exclusively. >> happy to provide one. >> stephen: fair warning, wecall everything an exclusive, though. there has been much speculationas to whether you would accept the nomination a contestedrepublican convention. you have said no, and i acceptthat. what i want to talk to you abouttoday is your agenda for house republicans in 2016.
how does your message differ asthe speaker from what we're hearing from the presidentialcandidates? >> well, one of the things thatwe're building here in the house republicans is we're offering anagenda to the country for how we fix our country's big problems. 71% of americans don't like thedirection the country is headed. we think we owe our fellowcitizens a better way forward, so we're going to tackle theissues-- economic growth, patient-centered health care,how do you move people from
welfare to work, how do yousecure national security, restore self-government? we want to give the people ofthis country a very coherent choice by dpifg them an agendathat gets this country back on track, and we want to take thisagenda to the country to ask for a mandate to put these things inplace in 2017. that's what we're working onhere. we want to have an ideascampaign, not a personality contest.
and that's what we think here inthe house we can coand provide to our fellow citizens. >> stephen: that's a powerfulmessage, a message that the american people will certainlyrespond to if it comes from the mouth of the future republicannominee. yes or no-- would you accept thenomination? >> no, stephen, i have said i donot want, nor would i accept, the republican nomination. >> stephen: got it.
so you're considering thenomination. ( laughter ). >> no, no i'm not. >> stephen: another i'll giveyou some time to mull this one over? ( laughter )how about now? >> still no. >> stephen: so that's a maybe? >> no, it's a no.
>> stephen: like a no-no? or one of those no, i don't wantto be speaker of the house but i'll accept it if you just giveit to me nos. >> it's a no-no. >> stephen: and two no-nosmake a yes? >> no, they make a firmer no. period. >> stephen: okay period. but if i add two more periods,it becomes an ellipses, so
possibly? >> so, no. let me say it in clear english. no. >> stephen: okay, how aboutclear german? >> nein. >> stephen: clear russian. >> nyet. >> stephen: wow, you seem toknow a lot of foreign languages.
that kind of internationalexperience will really come in handy if you decide to acceptthe republican nomination, sir. >> stephen. >> have said this repeatedly. the nomination should go tosomeone who actually campaigned for it. for me, that door is closed. but is the door locked? ( laughter )>> it is bolted shut.
>> stephen: i see. is there a key under the mat, byany chance? >> no, there's not. and observer you ask, thereisn't one of those little windows on the door you canpunch through and turn the handle like a burglar in thosehome security ads. okay, i apologize. maybe "door" was a bad metaphor? has the ship sailed?
>> yes, it has sailed. >> stephen: and was that shipthe ss"yes "on the way to nomination harbor? >> no it was the h.m.s. "notgonna happen to a one-way voyage to how could i be any clearerin? >> stephen: well, sir, if youdon't know how to be clearer, i don't. i know it's a big decision uponyou should probably pray on it and talk about it with yourfamily.
in the meantime, thank you forjoining us, and i hope to have you back on the show soon. >> put me down for a strongmaybe on that. >> stephen: paul ryan,everybody, the republican nop me. ( applause )♪ ♪ ♪
No comments:
Post a Comment