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House Speaker Paul Ryan is expected to "categorically" rule himself out as a Republican presidential candidate Tuesday afternoon.
Ryan, a representative from Wisconsin, scheduled a news conference at 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 UTC) at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.
He is likely trying to quell rumors that he could emerge as the party nominee from a contested Republican convention.
Earlier Tuesday, he told Milwaukee radio station WISN that under no scenario would he seek the Republican arty nomination.
"I will not allow my name to be placed in nomination,'' Ryan told the radio station. "And it will not be me. I don't know how I can be clearer than that. ... It should be someone who actually wants to be president or is running for president."
Trump complaints
On Monday, Republican front-runner Donald Trump complained that party officials have created a "crooked, crooked system" to keep him from winning a first-ballot victory at the party's July convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trump's anger was focused on weekend voting in the Western state of Colorado, where Texas Senator Ted Cruz, his chief rival, collected all 34 of the state's national convention delegates at a political meeting confined to party activists, not voting open to rank-and file Republicans or the general public.
Ryan laughed when asked if he was working behind the scenes to "steal the GOP nomination away from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.''
"No, I am not," he told WISN. "This is just amazing. It is just amazing how these things keep going. I am going to try again today to put this to bed."
Some material for this report came from AP.
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