Paul Ryan Says He's Still Not Running for House Speaker

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Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — Now that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is out of the House speaker race, is Paul Ryan in?

Congressman Ryan, who has been hounded publicly and privately to run for speaker after McCarthy’s decision to drop out of the race, repeatedly declined to shut down the chatter Thursday evening.

“I’ve got nothing to add right now,” he told reporters, as he was leaving his committee office off the House floor. “This is not the time or place.”

“I just don’t have any answers for you right now,” he added. “My statement stands, I haven’t changed anything.”

Ryan said he wasn’t running for House speaker in a statement Thursday morning, shortly after McCarthy dropped out.

“I was surprised,” he said of McCarthy’s announcement.  “I was very shocked. He told me right before [the vote.]”

Ryan joked that if he was House speaker,  Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers would come and address a joint session of Congress.

He believes his fractured conference will settle on a speaker candidate.

“I think our conference will come together and unify, and find a way to do it,” he said.

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