'Mythical Ayn Randian utopia': Internet brutalizes Paul Ryan for not knowing Wisconsin's minimum wage

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) is a busy man; when he’s not getting blindsided by Donald Trump’s decision to side with rival politicians Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over the debt ceiling, he’s deep in the Congressional trenches, protecting his speakership from a growing threat by House Freedom Caucus members and former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.

So on Thursday, when Ryan was asked during a New York Times TimesTalk a very basic question—“What's the minimum wage” in his home state of Wisconsin?—the speaker was apparently unable to sift through the Ayn Rand novels he’s committed to memory to come to the correct answer without help from an audience member.

Appalled by Ryan’s lack of knowledge on this matter, the internet was quick to point out that Randy Bryce—a union ironworker and Southeastern Wisconsin native who hopes to unseat the speaker in 2018—is probably in the know on his state’s $7.25 an hour minimum wage.

Read some of the best reactions to Ryan's flub below, via Twitter.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article read, "the speaker was apparently unable to sift through the Ayn Rand novels he’s committed to memory to come to the correct answer." It has been edited to reflect that the speaker was in fact able to come to the correct answer after an audience member chimed in. Watch a video of the exchange below, beginning at the 45-minute mark.