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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who announced he’d vote for Donald Trump (but not endorse him, necessarily) earlier this month, has been saying a lot of negative things about the presumptive Republican nominee. His most recent contribution to the latter are comments from an interview with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, which will air in its entirety on Sunday. Again, Ryan is supporting Trump as his party’s likely nominee, but with fellow Republicans growing increasingly nervous about the Donald’s chances in November, it doesn’t sound like the speaker will be telling anyone else to do the same.
“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do anything that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan said when asked whether or not he’d tell Republicans to vote for Trump. “Of course I wouldn’t do that.”
Ryan acknowledged that Trump’s candidacy was “a very strange situation,” and that Trump himself was “a very unique nominee.” However, he felt it his “responsibility” not to lead “some chasm in the middle of our party” since it “would definitely knock us out of the White House.”
Then again, as the Wisconsin representative told the Huffington Post, he and the House Republicans were prepared to take legal action against Trump should he, as president, try to do something beyond the limits of his executive powers. Say, for example, like trying to pass an executive order calling for any kind of Muslim ban. “That’s a legal question that there’s a good debate about,” said Ryan, who also noted he “would sue any president that exceeds his or her powers.”
If this particular line of rhetoric stays on course (and if Trump wins the general election), there’s a chance we could see Ryan v Trump: Cure for Jaundice. At least the lawsuit king would be able to put another feather in his totally-real-and-not-faked cap.
(Via The Daily Beast and Huffington Post)