One day after President Barack Obama made his final State of the Union address, Paul Ryan -- speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives -- criticized the event by stating that “it was a fairly typical speech” for the Democratic occupant of the White House, who “glossed over the economy” as well as his “foreign-policy failures.”
The Wisconsin Republican also charged that it "degrades the presidency” to “talk about primary politics on the other party,” he told Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, during an online episode of Capital Download.
Ryan continued by noting: “Apparently, ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a bunch of guys riding around in trucks, and a picture of a good foreign policy is Syria. … What I don't think you got out of that speech is people are really hurting.”
“I'm used to seeing what I call 'straw men' arguments from the president,” the speaker added, “and I'm glad he talked about the polarization in our politics in America, but I got the sense that he was basically saying it was other people's fault.”
“We're the opposition party; we see things quite differently,” Ryan said. “I think the country is heading in the wrong direction, and as a result of that, I think we have an obligation of showing people how we would do things differently, and that's what we intend on making 2016 about. It's going to be a year of ideas for us.”
Page then noted: “The president said it was 'political hot air' to say that the economy wasn't good, and he also dismissed the idea as just political rhetoric that the country was weaker militarily and weaker abroad. Didn't persuade you, it sounds like.”
“No, it didn't,” Ryan responded, and “he's been in the White House for seven years, so we've gotten to know one another, not just personally but as Americans.”
The GOP official then stated: “Look, I'm in the opposition party, so you know I'm going to say things critical, but my observation is that he looks at the world as if it is what he wishes it would be, not as it is.”
“He does not understand, you're saying, what most Americans are feeling,” Page noted.
“I think he believes it's better, or I think he believes that his policies are succeeding when they're not,” Ryan responded. “And I think all the evidence is in, particularly on foreign policy.”
Obama “was very critical of (GOP front-runner) Donald Trump,” the interviewer noted, “not calling him out by name but talking about appealing to fear, the idea of taking action against Muslims, for instance, as immigrants to the United States. Do you agree with him on that?”
“Actually, I've spoken out about that,” Ryan replied. “Putting a religious test on anybody coming to this country is wrong. We ought to have a security test, not a religious test. That's who we are.”
“This country was founded on people fleeing to America for religious freedom,” he added. “It's the first amendment in our Constitution, but I think it sort of degrades the presidency to then talk about primary politics on the other party.”
“I think at the end of the day, speaking up for our values and speaking up for our beliefs is one thing, but kind of wading into the primary politics of the other party is just not really what presidents ought to do,” Ryan asserted.
Page then returned to a discussion of Donald Trump by asking: “What does Trump's rise tell us about the mood of the Republican Party?”
“I think people are really nervous,” Ryan answered. “I think people are very anxious. And that's because they believe that the country as they know it, this American idea,” is “leaving us, that that legacy is being severed.”
Trump is “speaking to that, and maybe I don't agree with every one of his solutions, that's fine. It's a big party,” the Republican official added.
“So people are going to say: 'I want someone who understands the pain I feel and the anxiety I have and the fear I've got that the country is going to lose a piece of its greatness,” Ryan stated. “I think that's more than a Republican thing. I think Democrats feel it the same way."
As NewsBusters previously reported, the tone of this interview was far less volatile than the grilling Ryan received on Wednesday while being interviewed by Matt Lauer, the co-host of NBC's Today morning program, when he was hammered about attempting to dismantle ObamaCare and pressed to “say something nice” about Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic Party's nomination in this year's presidential contest.
