A little over a week ago Fox 6 Milwaukee asked me why Donald Trump was coming back to Wisconsin when he was down seven points:
“Well he can’t win. But this isn’t about winning. This is about coming to Wisconsin and thumb his nose at Paul Ryan,” said Brian Fraley, a Republican strategist who is a Ryan supporter and has been outspoken against Trump.
Sure enough the other night at Trump’s rally in Green Bay, supporters chanted “Paul Ryan Sucks!” while Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brad Courtney stood on stage flustered. Courtney later put out a statement reaffirming the party’s support of Ryan. As I have said before, picking a fight with the most popular elected Republican in Wisconsin is just one of the thousands of stupid things Trump has done in the last six months.
Last night Fox 6 ran another story and wanted my take on where this puts the speaker now and for the future.
“There has to be tremendous anguish going on there, and a lot of conflict,” said Brian Fraley, GOP strategist. Fraley, a Ryan supporter who is outspoken against Trump, says the speaker is in a tough spot.
“When you have this kind of cult of personality, where does someone that’s an ideological thought leader and a proven conservative like Paul Ryan — how does he work with that?” Fraley said.
Paul Ryan hasn’t commented on the chants but numerous Wisconsin conservatives spoke out in support of him including the governor. You can watch the full Fox 6 story here.