Fox Host Reminds Paul Ryan The Network’s Audience Hates Him: ‘Our Viewers Don’t Like You’

Fox News host Neil Cavuto wasn’t shy about reminding former House Speaker Paul Ryan how universally detested he is by conservative viewers these days.

Appearing on Cavuto’s program, Ryan sat with a polite smile as the anchor listed the litany of grievances his audience has with the former Republican leader who has since joined the network’s board of directors. Even before his appearance, Cavuto said, Ryan was being targeted in comments begging him to ask his guest about how he feels betraying former President Donald Trump every day he remains in the GOP.

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“A lot of our viewers knew you were coming on, and a lot of them intrinsically dislike you for some reason,” Cavuto began, causing Ryan to smirk and chuckle. “They think you’re pulling the strings here at Fox, they think that you’re part of this anti-Trump, never-Trumper movement. They even equate me with you, to say alright, kindred spirits. And obviously, Donald Trump is saying that you should be fired by Rupert Murdoch. When you hear all of that, what do you say?” Cavuto asked him.

“I say I’ve been in politics a long time. I have really thick skin. I don’t think about that. I literally don’t think about it, no.” Asked if the Fox News owner ever raises the issue of Ryan’s lack of popularity, he laughed and replied, “No.”

“It’s just the… unspoken issue,” Cavuto proffered. “Yeah,” Ryan replied curtly.

WATCH:

Best moment on Fox News in a long time.

Telling Paul Ryan to his face.

'Our viewers don't like you.'pic.twitter.com/AL0MVbj6Xy

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 12, 2024

“Rupert Murdoch should fire pathetic RINO Paul Ryan from the Board of Fox,” Trump posted on Truth Social in May, according to the Daily Caller. “Ryan is a loser, always has been, and always will be. He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History. Fox will sink to the absolute bottom of the pack if Paul Ryan has anything to do with it!”

Ryan, who presided as House Speaker for most of President Trump’s four-year term, resigned in 2019 after losing an intra-party battle that prognosticators viewed as one for the soul of the GOP. The two party leaders carried starkly divergent views about the role of government in trade and protectionist policies, geopolitical interventionism, and domestic social safety programs. Many in the MAGA movement never lost their suspicion of the Ohio lawmaker since he accepted Mitt Romney’s invitation to join his presidential ticket in 2012.

When President Trump claimed that an Indian-born judge with Mexican heritage was biased in a lawsuit against Trump University, Ryan called the president’s reaction “the textbook definition of a racist comment,” PBS reported at the time. He left Congress in 2019 after claiming that “identity politics” had roiled his ability to move conservative policies forward despite having a Republican in the White House.

“I’m an old Jack Kemp guy that believes strongly in inclusive, aspirational politics that are based on bringing people together and not exploiting divisions,” Ryan told Politico. “With identity politics being played all around and 21st-century technology accelerating it, and putting gas on the fire — that is my big concern of politics these days. And that makes it harder to have political goodwill in this country because of all this polarization.”

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