Politics

Paul Ryan: If I Wanted To Be President I Would ‘Have Run In This Cycle’ [VIDEO]

Steve Guest Media Reporter
Font Size:

New Speaker of the House and 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate [crscore]Paul Ryan[/crscore] says that if he “really wanted to be president,” he would “have run in this cycle.” (RELATED: Paul Ryan Elected Speaker Of The House)

The full interview with CNN’s Dana Bash is set to air Sunday during “State of the Union” but a segment released early on Friday where Ryan explained, “I had the chance and opportunity to do so and I chose not to do that. So I’m perfectly happy and content with this decision.”

Ryan expressed, “That’s okay with me, that really doesn’t bother me. If I really wanted to be president, I would have run in this cycle for the presidency.”

Bash prefaced the question suggesting that becoming Speaker would be “a lot harder” and thus “mean the end of the road for any hope of being president.” The only former Speaker of the House to be elected president was James K. Polk in 1844.

Follow Steve on Twitter