Ryan: 2016 White House bid now ‘more realistic,’ rules out running for Speaker

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says the prospect of running for president has become “more realistic” to him but he will not think about a 2016 bid before completing deficit-reduction talks.

Ryan also told Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace that he has no intention of replacing John Boehner (R-Ohio) as House speaker.

Ryan said he looks back on the 2012 presidential campaign, when he served as Mitt Romney’s running mate, as a very positive experience.

He said it made running for the presidency himself seem more likely but he pledged not to weigh a run until deficit-reduction talks in Congress had run their course.

“I enjoyed the experience. It made it more realistic in my mind. It’s something that I much better understand,” Ryan said in a Sunday morning interview.” 

Ryan said he would not prefer to run for House speaker instead of president.

“I have no plans to be in House elected leadership. If I wanted to be in elected leadership like speaker, I would have run for these jobs years ago. I’ve always believed the better place for me is in policy leadership like being a chairman,” he said.

Ryan said his focus over the next year should be on the budget talks.

“That’s to me the most important thing. I shouldn’t be clouding my judgment today by thinking about some political thing four years from now. I should not be clouding my judgment by thinking, ‘How does this position me to run for president?’” he said.

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