Paul Ryan Doesn't Usually Cry. He 'Snapped' on Jan. 6

Paul Ryan recently told journalist Mark Leibovich that he's not one who easily sheds tears, Jan. 6 pushed him over the edge to the point where he "found himself sobbing." The former House speaker, like many other Americans, was "absolutely horrified" watching the Capitol riot unfold on TV. "Something snapped," Ryan told Leibovich for the latter's new book, Thank You for Your Servitude, which CNN saw in advance. "I spent my whole adult life in that building. And I saw my friends, a lot of cops, some of my old security detail—I'm still friends with a bunch of those guys. It really disturbed me, foundationally."

CNN notes the former congressman from Wisconsin occasionally clashed with former President Trump, before leaving Congress for good in early 2019. Still, even Ryan didn't think something like Jan. 6 would ever happen, per Leibovich, who writes that Ryan now expects "never to speak to [Trump] again." The Hill notes that Leibovich's book centers on Republican officials and lawmakers who enabled Trump. "The idea [of the book] is to tell the story of this ordeal through the supplicant fanboys who permitted Donald Trump's depravity to be inflicted on the rest of us," the journalist writes, per the Washington Post. Ryan now serves on the board of Fox Corp., which oversees Fox News; Leibovich notes that Ryan was "not inclined to grapple with questions of complicity" regarding Jan. 6, per CNN. (More Paul Ryan stories.)