WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump on Thursday in his first comments since the GOP presidential nominee declined to endorse the speaker in an coming Republican primary.
"He won the delegates. He won the thing fair and square. It's just that simple," Ryan said in an interview on the Jerry Bader Show on WTAQ radio in Green Bay, Wisc.
Ryan brushed off Trump's non-endorsement, adding: "The only endorsements I want are those of my own employers here in the First Congressional District, and that's really what my focus is."
Ryan faces a long-shot conservative challenger, Paul Nehlen, next Tuesday. Trump refused to declare support for Ryan this week, instead stating that "I'm just not there yet." The phrase echoed Ryan's own words in May, when he demurred on Trump, saying "I'm not there right now," before eventually going on to support him.
Ryan has been highly critical of Trump's attacks on a bereaved couple whose son died in Iraq and who took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to criticize Trump.
On Thursday, Ryan again condemned Trump's remarks about the Khans as "beyond the pale" and acknowledged that at some point, Trump could go too far for Ryan to be able to continue to support him.
Ryan said he didn't want to get drawn into "hypotheticals" but said: "None of these things are ever blank checks. That goes with any situation in any kind of race."
He also criticized Trump's campaign in the days since the Republican convention.
"We just came out of our convention, and yeah, he's had a pretty strange run since the convention. You would think we'd ought to be focusing on Hillary Clinton and all of her deficiencies," Ryan said. "She is such a weak candidate that one would think we'd be on offense against Hillary Clinton, and it is distressing that that's not what we're talking about these days."
The speaker said it is his duty to speak up against Trump on issues like the Khan family or his criticism of an American-born judge of Mexican descent whom Trump had also attacked.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.