--- title: Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election description: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan issued a rebuke of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Saturday, criticizing comments that question the validity of the electoral process canonical: https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-15T21:50:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:28.162Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election System og:description: Trump has said the election is "rigged" against him by "globalist elites" og:url: https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0f2c62fe229e8c9/6988aa20196cf4d78803d922/paul-ryan-donald-trump-electoral-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election System twitter:description: Trump has said the election is "rigged" against him by "globalist elites" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0f2c62fe229e8c9/6988aa20196cf4d78803d922/paul-ryan-donald-trump-electoral-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election System > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2016 9:50 PM UTC  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds his weekly press conference in the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2016. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds his weekly press conference in the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2016.Bill Clark—CQ Roll Call/AP by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Oct 15, 2016 9:50 PM UTC Speaker of the House Paul Ryan issued a rebuke of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Saturday, criticizing comments that question the validity of the electoral process. In a statement, a spokesperson for the highest-ranking elected Republican said Ryan is “fully confident” in the nation’s elections system. It comes on the heels of Trump’s claims that the election is “rigged” against him by “globalist elites,” elements of the federal government, and the press. “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,” said Ryan spokesperson AshLee Strong. In recent days Trump has laid out increasingly far-fetched visions of plots to undermine his candidacy. The descent into the realm of conspiracy theories comes as Trump struggles to account for his [declining poll numbers](http://time.com/4527825/poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-post-debate/) and to divert attention from a series of [allegations of sexual misconduct](http://time.com/4530242/donald-trump-sexual-allegations/) against him. “It’s a rigged system,” he repeated over and again of the election Saturday at a rally in Bangor, Me. Trump’s attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the Nov. 8 result comes as U.S. government officials [believe the Russian government](http://time.com/4523427/us-government-blames-russia-election-hacks/) is engaged in a similar effort through its extensive hacking of Democratic Party officials and several state election systems. In a statement Saturday, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook fired back at [Trump’s allegations that the race would be fixed](http://fortune.com/2016/10/15/donald-trump-conspiracy-claim-hillary-clinton-media/). “Campaigns should be hard-fought and elections hard-won, but what is fundamental about the American electoral system is that it is free, fair and open to the people,” he said. “This election will have record turnout, because voters see through Donald Trump’s shameful attempts to undermine an election weeks before it happens.” The Ryan statement marks the latest split between Ryan and Trump. The speaker was [slow to endorse Trump](http://time.com/4355647/paul-ryan-donald-trump-vote-endorsement/) on account of his list of controversial comments and unorthodox positions for a Republican nominee. After the release earlier this month of [Trump’s lewd comments](http://time.com/4523757/donald-trump-women-comments-lewd/) about women, Ryan told his conference that while he still supports the nominee, [he would not campaign](http://time.com/4525084/paul-ryan-donald-trump-defend-endorse/) on Trump’s behalf. Ryan also signaled that he has little faith in Trump’s ability to win the White House and encouraged his members to do what they need to win the own seats, even if they have to break with Trump. Trump fired back at the Speaker, calling him a “very weak and ineffective leader.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election System","datePublished":"2016-10-15T21:50:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:28.162Z","description":"Trump has said the election is \"rigged\" against him by \"globalist elites\"","url":"https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0f2c62fe229e8c9/6988aa20196cf4d78803d922/paul-ryan-donald-trump-electoral-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0f2c62fe229e8c9/6988aa20196cf4d78803d922/paul-ryan-donald-trump-electoral-confidence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Speaker of the House Paul Ryan","caption":"Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds his weekly press conference in the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2016.","creditText":"Bill Clark—CQ Roll Call/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/","name":"Paul Ryan Rejects Donald Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' Election System"}}]}] ```