- Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said he began to cry while watching the January 6 riot on TV.
- Ryan told journalist Mark Leibovich the Capitol riots "disturbed" him.
- Leibovich wrote about the interview in his forthcoming book "Thank You for Your Servitude."
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan was so "disturbed" by the events of the January 6 riots that he "found himself sobbing" while watching the events on television.
Ryan, a Republican, told journalist Mark Leibovich for his forthcoming book "Thank You For Your Servitude" that he often did not cry but "something snapped in him" that day.
"I spent my whole adult life in that building," Ryan said, according to a copy of the book read by Insider. "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."
Ryan wrote a letter to the security team, the book says, "figuring they could use all the love they could get right now."
"He never thought it would come to this," Leibovich wrote in the book. "That was what most Republicans said. Ryan figured the president would bitch and moan and maybe make a big show of 'fighting' for his supporters for a while. Everyone could feel good and victimized. But eventually Trump would just leave; hopefully, he would know to do this on his own. And everyone could then just get on with their lives."
But Leibovich reported in his book that Ryan was evasive when he asked him whether he had been complicit during Trump's presidency.
"I was absolutely horrified," was all Ryan would say about the violence on January 6, Leibovich wrote. Ryan told Leibovich he hadn't spoken to Trump since he left Congress and expected never to speak to him again.
Ryan spent 20 years representing Wisconsin's 1st strict in the US House of Representatives before retiring in 2019. He was House speaker from 2015 to 2019.
Ryan has been critical of Trump and other Republicans aligned with him.
In June, Ryan told an audience during a political event in South Carolina that Congressional Republicans "didn't have the guts" to impeach Trump following the January 6 riot. Trump replied, calling him a "pathetic loser" and "weak RINO" — meaning Republican In Name Only — on his social media platform Truth Social.
Ryan publicly denounced GOP leaders in his state in 2021 after they pursued a $680,000 audit and investigation into the results of the 2020 election.
"It was not rigged. It was not stolen. Donald Trump lost the election. Joe Biden won the election. It's really clear," Ryan told Wisconsin's ABC affiliate WISN 12.
"Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission," follows the story of how Trump came to dominate the GOP and features interviews from prominent Republican leaders such as Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
American Idea Foundation, founded by Ryan, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.