Paul Ryan

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Twitter erupts in glee over news of Paul Ryan’s possible retirement

Is it really happening?

 

Tiffany Kelly

Internet Culture

Posted on Dec 14, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 8:00 am CDT

This year churned out a seemingly endless stream of depressing news in America. But now that we’re almost in 2018, we’re seeing some news that isn’t completely terrible. Earlier this week, Democrat Doug Jones won an Alabama Senate seat, defeating Republican Roy Moore, a man accused of assaulting several teenage girls. And now a new report from Politico says that House Speaker Paul Ryan will retire after next year’s midterm election. The article said that Ryan has apparently told his friends that “he feels like he’s running a daycare center.”

He would like to serve through Election Day 2018 and retire ahead of the next Congress. This would give Ryan a final legislative year to chase his second white whale, entitlement reform, while using his unrivaled fundraising prowess to help protect the House majority—all with the benefit of averting an ugly internecine power struggle during election season. Ryan has never loved the job; he oozes aggravation when discussing intraparty debates over “micro-tactics,” and friends say he feels like he’s running a daycare center.

Many people are all too happy to see Ryan leave. Twitter was filled with lots of goodbye notes.

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/941378095080230913

Ryan has been seen as an enabler of Trump and his policies.

The news was a good excuse to use the “retire bitch” meme.

https://twitter.com/michellelite/status/941387278836027392

Trump reportedly called Ryan after the Politico story to ask if the news was true.

Ryan apparently told Trump that the news wasn’t true, according to the White House.

Of course, Ryan probably wouldn’t tell Trump if he was actually planning to retire. We’ll just have to wait until next year to see if (or when) he decides to sneak out.

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*First Published: Dec 14, 2017, 2:47 pm CST