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Is Paul Ryan a Fox Corps member? Ex-speaker slammed 'for enabling Donald Trump for 2 years' as he denounces GOP

Ryan joins many other Republicans, including Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, in criticizing the expected challenges of electoral votes from GOP lawmakers

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan condemned efforts by a group of Republican lawmakers to decline the electoral votes from some states, saying on Sunday, January 3, that it is "difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act". 

"Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic," Ryan said in a statement. "It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy."

Ryan asked fellow conservatives to think about the "precedent that it would set" and noted the Trump campaign's failed efforts in the court to challenge election results in a number of states. "The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed," he added. "The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate."

Around 100 House Republicans are expected to oppose the electoral votes cast in a handful of battleground states when Congress meets for a joint session on Wednesday, January 6, to tally the votes and declare the election results. On Saturday, January 2, a group of 11 Republicans in the Senate said they, too, plan to reject electoral votes from "disputed" states unless a committee is elected to conduct a 10-day audit of the results from those states. GOP Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said last week he also intends to object to the certification of electoral votes.

Ryan joins many other Republicans, including Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, in criticizing the expected challenges of electoral votes from GOP lawmakers. A group of conservative House members led by Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky also broke with their Republican colleagues and said in a statement on Sunday that the electoral votes submitted to Congress by the states should be tallied. "The text of the Constitution is clear," the seven GOP lawmakers said. "States select electors. Congress does not. Accordingly, our path forward is also clear. We must respect the states' authority here. Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states."

Born on January 29, 1970, Paul Davis Ryan served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from October 2015 to January 2019. He was also the 2012 vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party, working unsuccessfully alongside Mitt Romney. He is a representative from Wisconsin; born in Janesville, Rock County, who graduated from Joseph A Craig High School, Janesville, Wis, 1988. He completed his Bachelors in Arts from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1992. 

Ryan has worked as a speechwriter for Empower America (now FreedomWorks), a conservative advocacy group founded by Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick and William Bennett. Ryan later worked as a speechwriter for Kemp, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in the 1996 United States presidential election. Kemp became Ryan's mentor, and Ryan has said he had a "huge influence" because of him. In March 2019, Ryan joined the board of directors of Fox Corporation, the owner of Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcast network. He has since joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame as a professor of practice for the 2019–20 academic year as a guest lecturer in political science and economics. In April 2019, Ryan was nominated as the delegation leader to represent President Trump to visit Taipei. With Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, he attended the 40th anniversary ceremony of the Taiwan Relations Act.

As soon as the news of Ryan denouncing Republican efforts to challenge electoral votes, made its way to social media, people started talking about it, as journalist Paul Dickerson shared Ryan's statement and said, "Paul Ryan: 'Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic.'" While journalist Stephanie Ruhle wrote, "Note - Paul Ryan is on the board of Fox. Will he make this point clear to the decision makers there?"

One Internet user wrote, "Paul Ryan is also on the board of directors for Fox News. He doesn’t have completely clean hands here." While another one slammed him and said, "How low will Paul Ryan go? As low as @FoxNews’ ratings."

Journalist Maggie Haberman said, "Paul Ryan, who has commented sparingly since leaving office, with a clear denunciation of senate and house efforts to block certification" While another one wrote, "The monster that Paul Ryan helped create is trying now to eat our democracy - and even Paul Ryan can see it."

Amy Siskind said, "Paul Ryan speaks out now after enabling Trump for 2 years and helping to create the path to destruction he was on. No thanks." While another one wrote, "Nobody should care what @SpeakerRyan says now. He enabled Trump for 2 years."