House Speaker Paul Ryan said he hopes his endorsement of Republican Donald Trump — and next week’s unveiling of a wide-ranging conservative agenda — will be a turning point in the 2016 race.(Photo: Andy Manis, for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
House Speaker Paul Ryan says he hopes his<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
endorsement of Donald Trump<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— and next week's unveiling of a wide-ranging conservative agenda — will be a turning point in the 2016 race.
"Yes, this has been more of a personality contest election. Until now, that is, as far as we're concerned," Ryan said Friday in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. "We believe — we being House Republicans — we believe we can add some substance to this conversation."
Ryan said his endorsement Thursday of the real estate mogul and presumptive Republican nominee came only after a month of meetings and discussions with Trump and his team "to make sure that Donald and his staff understood where we were going on substance."
"I wanted to make sure that our nominee, someone I did not know and someone that's new to governing and principles and policies and politics, was comfortable with where we are going," Ryan said. "And that was important to me. That we actually have an understanding of one another, and an understanding of the critical principles that animate conservatives that we think are necessary to put the country back on track."
But in the same interview, Ryan added that he will continue to speak out when Trump says things the Janesville Republican disagrees with or finds offensive, such as his criticism of Trump's proposal for a Muslim ban.
"Yes, I will continue to speak out if need be. I hope it's not necessary. Yes, I am concerned,"Ryan said. "He and I spoke about the Muslim ban."
He specifically criticized Trump's recent criticism of a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit filed by former students of Trump University, whom Trump called a "hater" and "of Mexican heritage."
At a rally last week, Trump reportedly said the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, "happens to be, we believe, Mexican," and suggested he was biased because of Trump's calls to build a wall along the border to prevent illegal immigration. Trump repeated those comments in an interview this week.
"I'm building the wall, I'm building the wall," Trump<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
told The New York Times. "I have a Mexican judge. He's of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things."
Ryan criticized his comments, pointing out that the judge is "a guy from Indiana."
"We shouldn't be speaking to fellow citizens in ways that divide us," Ryan said. "I think the comments about the Mexican-American judge are not called for, and I don't even understand the line of thinking behind it. And that to me is something that makes it harder to unify and have an inclusive campaign that's inspiring. And we're going to continue working on that."
Ryan announced his endorsement of Trump, vowing to for the New York mogul in the fall, in an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
opinion piece<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in his hometown newspaper, the Janesville Gazette.
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