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Paul Ryan is giving a big speech to officially rule out a late bid for the presidency
(AP)
Paul Ryan.
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday plans to officially rule out a potential late bid for the presidency.
"He's going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all," a Ryan aide told Business Insider.
Ryan's speech is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET in the lobby of the Republican National Committee office in Washington, DC.
Speculation surrounding Ryan's potential late-entry as a last-minute choice at the Republican convention in July has reached a fever pitch over the past month, as the likelihood of a contested convention has increased.
Last week, Politico's Mike Allen reported in his newsletter that "top Republicans are becoming increasingly vocal" of the possibility that Ryan winds up with the GOP nomination.
"One of the nation's best-wired Republicans," as cited by Allen, gave Ryan a better-than-50% chance of leaving the July convention as the party's nominee. The source gave a 60% chance of the convention becoming deadlocked. At that time, Allen's source boldly predicted, Ryan would have a 90% chance of having the delegates turn his way.
The Republican nominee could be named at the convention if none of the three remaining candidates enter it with 1,237 delegates. Should frontrunner Donald Trump lose Wisconsin on Tuesday as is projected, he would need to secure roughly 60% of the remaining delegates.
Ryan, who was in Israel as a part of a congressional delegation visit, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he remained uninterested in the job.
"I think you need to run for president if you're going to be president, and I'm not running for president," Ryan said. "So period, end of story."
But, as Allen wrote, Ryan also once insisted he had no interest in becoming the speaker of the House.
"In both cases, the maximum leverage is to NOT WANT IT — and to be begged to do it," Allen wrote. "He and his staff are trying to be as Shermanesque as it gets."
The speculation took off in mid-March, after CNBC reported that the Wisconsin lawmaker wouldn't "categorically" rule out accepting the GOP nomination. Ryan has since repeatedly denied that he is seeking the nomination or would accept the nomination from a split convention.
But the House Speaker stoked the flames after he gave a late-March speech about the state of American politics in which he spoke out about the language being used in the presidential race. Though he did not mention any of the candidates by name, Ryan took a shot at Trump by saying his own party was partially to blame for vitriol in political discourse.
"That was somebody who was laying out the speech that, in most cases, you'd give six months before you announce you're going to run," Allen quoted a Ryan friend as saying.
Ryan's staff later cut a short commercial from the speech that had many asking if the clip signaled the start of his shadow campaign. His camp shot down that speculation shortly after.
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