Paul Ryan Flexes His Non-Presidential Comedic Muscles With Stephen Colbert

The New York primary results to the contrary, one of the more interesting aspects of the 2016 presidential election cycle is the ballad of House Speaker Paul Ryan — a man who isn’t running for the Republican nomination despite ads that suggest otherwise. The Wisconsin representative swears he doesn’t want the nomination or the presidency, and has stressed time and time again that whoever gets either should be a person who campaigned for both. Yet none of these repeated public statements and sentiments mattered to Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who offered Ryan a platform to discuss the House’s upcoming agenda that quickly turned into a question-and-non-answer session about the politician’s presidential ambitions.

“There has been much speculation as to whether you would accept the nomination in a contested Republican convention. You have said no, and I accept that,” said Colbert. “What I want to talk to you about today is your agenda for House Republicans in 2016.”

This prompt gave Ryan a moment to discuss just that — his plans for the upcoming legislative session. However, as soon as the speaker finished his prepared statement, Colbert launched into a rather Colbert Report-esque moment of bait-and-switch:

“That’s a powerful message. A message that the American people will certainly respond to if it comes from the mouth of the future Republican nominee.”

Cue the Ryan half of the exchange as written by the Late Show writers and (probably) approved by the speaker’s office. A veritable laundry list of answers that include, but aren’t limited to:

  • “No, Stephen. I have said, ‘I do not want nor would I accept the Republican nomination.'”
  • “Still no.”
  • “It’s a no-no.”

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the official Late Show account live-tweeted the Ryan segment and hounded the speaker about his many (non-)answers and faux candidacy announcement:

The morning after, Ryan took to his personal Twitter account to reiterate his non-candidacy:

So that’s a “yes,” Mr. Speaker?

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