Paul Ryan’s face has always said more than his words. In the two years since the Republican Party takeover by Donald Trump, it has been a mask of anguish.
So it is no surprise that, come what may for House Republicans in the fall election, the Wisconsin Republican will not be leading them into the next Congress. Still, the assumption had been that he would soldier through re-election in November and step down after that, so that his stature — and his capacity to raise money — would not be diminished by being a lame duck.