A curious statement by Speaker Paul Ryan, who hasn’t really spoken out on the presidential campaign so far, as Jason weighed in on earlier. Seems like Trump’s latest “policy” may have crossed a line for the establishment GOP and Ryan just might be signaling a willingness to alienate the Donald from the party as a whole.
“This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. And, more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for,” Ryan said today at a news conference on Capitol Hill. “Not only are there many Muslims serving in our armed forces dying for this country, there are Muslims serving right here in the House working every day to uphold and to defend the Constitution.”
He’s right in that the GOP (or any political party) should not stand for the lunacy of throwing out an entire population of people because of their religion. That’s actually a level-headed thing for him to say, even for a Republican. The GOP stands for a whole host of other ridiculous things though (defund PP, cutting top 1%’s taxes, anti-gun control, Medicare vouchers, eliminating food stamps and TANF, repealing Obamacare, etc) but refusing to let an entire demographic of people in to (or back in to) the Country, even if they’re American citizens? That’s just crazy talk and in no way would the “real” GOP support something like that.
Maybe Ryan speaking out like this is exactly what is needed to start shutting down Trump’s insanity, lest he continue on and win the nomination.
Asked whether he would support Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, Ryan said he would support “whoever the nominee is.”