Paul Ryan Says He Is ‘Not Ready’ to Endorse Donald Trump
Photo
Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Capitol Hill last week.Credit
Drew Angerer for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary rebuke of his party’s presumed nominee, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Republican, said Thursday that he was “not ready” to endorse Donald J. Trump for president.
Mr.
Ryan’s announcement represented a split among Republicans not seen in
at least a half century, and it came only two days after Mr. Trump said
he would unify the party after essentially clinching the nomination with
his victory in the Indiana primary.
As the chairman of the Republican National Convention,
Mr. Ryan has repeatedly said he would support his party’s nominee as
Republicans tried to regain the White House and solidify control of
Congress.
But
the combination of Mr. Trump’s at times outrageous remarks — insulting
women, Hispanics and Muslims — and his broad rejection of many core
Republican policies proved too toxic a brew for Mr. Ryan as he defended
his majority in the House, the reputation of his party and his own
viability.
Within
an hour, Mr. Trump offered a biting rejoinder, saying in a statement
that he was “not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda.”
“Perhaps
in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what
is best for the American people,” he said. “They have been treated so
badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them
first!”
Mr. Ryan, who made his remarks in an interview with CNN, said Republicans want “a standard-bearer that bears our standards.”
“I
think conservatives want to know: Does he share our values and our
principles on limited government, the proper role of the executive,
adherence to the Constitution?” he said. “There’s a lot of questions
that conservatives, I think, are going to want answers to.”
Mr.
Ryan’s ambivalence toward Mr. Trump adds another layer of division in a
party torn by the billionaire developer’s ascent, placing him at odds
with his fellow Wisconsinite, Reince Priebus, the party chairman, who
pronounced Mr. Trump the presumptive nominee and said Republicans should
fall in line. Mr. Priebus was not aware Mr. Ryan was going to make the
statement, his spokesman, Sean Spicer, told CNN.
By NATALIA V. OSIPOVA2:20Great Clash: Donald Trump vs. Paul Ryan
Video
Great Clash: Donald Trump vs. Paul Ryan
By NATALIA V. OSIPOVA on Publish Date February 24, 2016.
Photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times.
Watch in Times Video »
Although
Mr. Ryan said he had expected the race to run at least a few more
weeks, he had spent the last day honing his position, aides said, even
as others, like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority
leader, voiced unequivocal if not effusive support for Mr. Trump. While
Mr. Ryan’s defiance put him in line with a number of other prominent
Republicans, Mr. Trump has defied convention throughout the campaign, so
the long-term effect was at best uncertain.
In
a campaign that has delivered a daily dose of head-shaking moments of
awe, Mr. Trump on Thursday continued the trend, in a manner that made
some Republicans cringe. In honor of Cinco de Mayo, Mr. Trump posted a photo on Twitter
of himself digging into a taco bowl — made in the Trump Tower food
court, of course — and included in the caption “I love Hispanics.”
A
party nominee has never failed to gain the support of a House speaker
or majority leader from his party in modern times. In 1896, Speaker
Thomas Brackett Reed ran against William McKinley and made it be known
he would not serve as vice president, but ended up backing the nominee.
In 1964, Senator Barry Goldwater had to wait a bit uncomfortably for the endorsement of Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, but Mr. Dirksen gave it and thus ended the stop-Goldwater movement.
While
Mr. Ryan’s remarks caught Republicans off guard, it also gave them
essentially a permission slip to go their own way on Mr. Trump’s
candidacy. Had Mr. Ryan issued a forceful endorsement, it would have put
pressure on fellow House Republicans to follow his lead, a step many
have been unwilling to take.
“I’m
not there right now,” Mr. Ryan said. “And I hope to, though, and I want
to. But I think what is required is that we unify the party, and I
think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come
from our presumptive nominee.”
Mr.
Trump, who once said Mr. Ryan would “pay a big price” if he did not
support him, knows that the speaker and other opponents did not have
great sway over primary voters. But Mr. Ryan, who has helped raise
hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republicans, may well be a more
notable voice in a general election.
Outside
of Mr. Trump’s remarks about Muslims, Hispanic immigrants, women and
other groups — which Mr. Ryan has at times gone out of his way to
denounce — his policy positions on many major issues, notably trade and
entitlements, stand in stark contrast with Mr. Ryan’s.
Mr.
Ryan has been signaling a willingness to carve out some terrain to
differentiate himself by insisting that House Republicans write their own policy agenda this year, and he has left bread crumbs of ambivalence for months by giving speeches that at times criticized Mr. Trump’s views.
After
Mr. Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United
States, Mr. Ryan strongly disagreed. “This is not conservatism,” Mr. Ryan said in December. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more important, it’s not what this country stands for.”
“This
is fundamental,” Mr. Ryan added at the time. “And if someone wants to
be our nominee, they must understand this. I hope this is the last time I
need to speak out on this race.”
While
saying Thursday that “I don’t want to underplay” what Mr. Trump
accomplished, Mr. Ryan picked up on those earlier themes, adding, “We
hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln and Reaganesque,” someone
who “appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans.”
Mr.
Trump is expected to be a drag on some Republican candidates running
for the House and Senate this November, given his intense unpopularity
with key voting groups, including women, Hispanics and voters with
college degrees.
Even
before Mr. Ryan spoke out, Mr. Trump was confronting the prospect of
crippling defections within the Republican elite. Both George Bush and
George W. Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents,
announced on Wednesday that they would not back his candidacy.
Mike
Shields, president of the American Action Network, a conservative
outside spending group, said Mr. Ryan had effectively cleared the way
for others in the party to decide for themselves how to handle Mr.
Trump. Mr. Shields said that with Mr. Ryan as an example, many
candidates could cleave to a message and an issue agenda distinct from
Mr. Trump’s.
“This is something that every Republican can say at the local level,” Mr. Shields said. “It’s great leadership on Paul Ryan’s
part, because it puts them in a place where all these other members can
turn around and say the same thing, which is, ‘Look, there are some
things that we’ve got to stand for.’ ”
In
exit polls, big chunks of the Republican electorate said they remained
deeply wary of Mr. Trump. In Indiana, the state where he effectively
locked up the Republican nomination, about a quarter of Republican
voters said they would be scared to see him as the president.
Mr.
Ryan alluded Thursday to the broad stakes for his party. “I just think
you always run like everything is on the line. My focus this fall is,
has been and will be the House majority,” Mr. Ryan said. He added, “But I
also really love this country, and I want to see us win this election.”
Jennifer Steinhauer reported
from Washington, and Alexander Burns from New York. Jonathan Martin
contributed reporting from Washington.
No comments:
Post a Comment