US House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said on Thursday he was not ready to support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee in November’s general election.
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Speaking to CNN, he added: “I hope to”. With his sweeping, 16-point victory in Tuesday’s in primary, and the surrender of his major remaining rival, Ted Cruz, Trump was pronounced the presumptive nominee by the chair of the Republican National Committee.
“Saying we’re unified doesn’t in and of itself unify us”, Ryan said. “Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people”, he said.
Instead, Ryan insisted that Trump needed to unify the party, and to become a standard bearer for Trump’s ideas. “They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!”
Mr Trump responded, in a statement released by his campaign, that he was “not ready to support” Mr Ryan’s agenda as the party’s leader in the House.
In the CNN interview, Ryan said “you have to unify all wings of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, and then take it to the country so that… the vast majority of Americans, non-Republicans also, have something that they’re proud to support and proud to be a part of”.
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. listens as Nick Yacoub of Langley, Va., talks about his recovery from addiction to opioid painkillers, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
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Mr Christie was an early Trump endorser and has been advising him behind the scenes. He spoke out against Trump saying there could be riots in Cleveland if there were a contested convention. Ryan rebuked Trump for plans to bar Muslims from the country, and when Trump was slow to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
