SNL' Mocks Ryan Videos With 'I'm Not Running for President' Political Ad

This week’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” was supposed to include a special televised message from Paul Ryan (Taran Killam), but the piece was cut due to time constraints. In the clip, which the show posted to YouTube, Ryan assures Americans that he is most certainly not running for president, then provides a subsequent list of all the reasons why he would qualify for the job.

“I’ve heard the talk, and I’m flattered,” he begins. “But I want to put those rumors to rest.”

Image source: YouTube / "SNL"

The speaker of the House proceeds to explain that he does not not want and will not accept a presidential nomination from the GOP.

“But I hear you, America,” Ryan says as the clip cuts to a scene of him strolling the fields of a prototypical American farm. “You want someone to restore the strong leadership that’s been so sorely missing in this country for the last eight years.”

The skit comes after the speaker’s communications team earlier this month released a 43-second video some alleged was a not-so-subtle campaign ad. But Ryan’s team assured TheBlaze at the time that the inspirational video, titled “Politics These Days,” was just a friendly update to show the American people that Ryan is “do[ing] things differently” than past speakers, just “as he promised.”

The media was not buying that the video, the second released on the speaker’s website in a month, was anything but an ad.

Image source: YouTube / "SNL"

“But I’m not running,” Tillan’s Ryan continues after listing off all of the ways he would improve the country if elected. “My family is my priority.”

“But Dad,” Ryan’s fake son asks, “Didn’t some of our best presidents come out of contested conventions?”

“Like Eisenhower and Lincoln?!” another son suggests.

“Hmm, you’re both right,” Ryan responds, as if just making the connection.

“So I guess there would be a lot of historical precedent if I were to run,” he says, turning his head to face the camera. “But that’s just not my style.”

Ryan explains that he already has his work cut out for him speaker of the House, “a job I swore I would never ever take, and then I did,” he says.

“But come on,” he quips. “That was like six months ago!”

“So I’m sorry, America. You’re a heck of a country, but you can count me out. I’m not running for president.”

Only when the clip ends do viewers learn that the message was paid for by “Paul Ryan for President.”

“I’m Paul Ryan,” Killam says to the camera. “And I did not approve this message.”

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