Two fresh faces in the Republican Party, Ryan and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, are offering messages of openness and diversity that could answer the GOP establishments increasingly desperate search for an antidote to the loud pronouncements of presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
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But Thursday’s comments were all the more startling because Trump has now emerged as the party’s standardbearer and Ryan, as speaker of the House of Representatives, will oversee the Republican presidential nominating convention in July.
“Saying we’re unified doesn’t in and of itself unify us”, he said.
Ryan’s Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, essentially backed Trump on Wednesday. With hopes to deny Trump the nod, some have encouraged what would amount to a political revolt at the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland, where Ryan will serve as chairman.
Ryan made his surprising comments to Jake Tapper on CNN two days after Trump became the last remaining Republican candidate.
Ryan suggested he is concerned about whether Trump can unite Republicans and demonstrate the qualities associated with party icons Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, while also giving a nod to the speaker’s one-time mentor Jack Kemp. But many in the GOP are still holding out for a hero and are not getting on board Team Trump. “And I think that the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee”.
Mr Christie was an early Trump endorser and has been advising him behind the scenes.
While many members of Congress have merely kept quiet about Trump’s candidacy, Senator Ben Sasse published a scathing open letter Wednesday night, saying that there are “dumpster fires in my town more popular” than Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Ryan stated that he hopes to eventually back Trump and be a part of this “unifying process”, but insisted that Trump must set the tone.
Both in style and substance, Trump’s reckless and seemingly spontaneous solutions to the country’s problems are anathema to everything Ryan is about.
Mr Trump said he would also consider John Kasich, the OH governor, who dropped out of the presidential race this week. Ryan has been working since becoming speaker last fall on an “agenda project” that could give lawmakers something to run on apart from the top of the ticket.
Fitzpatrick thinks the wave of Trump support may actually be a boon to the Republican ranks in the state House and Senate, given the surge of new voters he has brought to the polls.
“He’s focused on an agenda”.
“He’s talking directly to the American people about their concerns about trade, about immigration, about a foreign policy that’s restrained”, Sessions added.
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With Trump effectively sewing up the nomination, Ryan’s role should be more ceremonial. He has praised Planned Parenthood even as a House GOP committee investigates its practices regarding fetal tissue collection. On the minimum wage, he said he was ‘open to doing something with it’.
