Ryan refuses to talk about Trump’s tweets
House speaker makes stops in Wisconsin
DELAVAN - President Donald Trump’s tweets. Questions about whether Trump has recorded their conversations. A Democratic congressman holding town halls in his district.
Those were just a few of the topics House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to discuss Friday during a stop at Prestige Paints in Delavan.
“I’ve decided I’m not going to comment on the tweets of the day, or of the hour,” Ryan told reporters after touring the paint company. “I haven’t seen them all, to be candid with you.”
Ryan repeated his previous comments that “no one is disputing the fact that the president has the right to hire or fire” former FBI director James Comey.
“He made that decision. It’s been made. I think what’s important now is that we make sure there is a qualified and capable person that people have confidence in to take over the FBI,” Ryan said. “It’s also important that the professionals there keep doing their jobs.”
When pressed on Trump’s Friday tweet implying that he may have taped conversations with Comey, Ryan added, “I’m going to leave the president to talk about and defend his tweets.”
Asked whether it would be OK with him if Trump had recorded their conversations, Ryan said, “I’ve never given any thought to that.”
Ryan did say that Trump has never asked him for a loyalty pledge.
The Janesville Republican also declined to discuss the town hall U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan held on Friday in Kenosha, which is in Ryan’s district.
“I don’t have any response,” Ryan said. “I don’t really have any feeling about it whatsoever.”
Asked if he had plans for any upcoming in-person town halls, Ryan insisted there were other ways to reach out to constituents.
“For lots of reasons, I’m doing it in different ways. I think first of all I can get to constituents, and not just people coming in from out of state, by doing a lot of my telephone town halls, going to their places of employment, doing my office hours,” Ryan said. “So there’s a lot of ways I’m being able to interact with constituents without creating other disturbances.”
He added, “I’m doing it in a way so that constituents don’t go into a harassing environment.”
Before his Delavan stop, Ryan fielded questions from high school students at Badger High School in Lake Geneva.
Protesters gathered outside the school to greet Ryan. Many of them held signs criticizing the speaker and the Republican health care plan.
But the questions posed by the students were friendly ones, like one focused on how he balances his time between Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., and another about civility in politics.
“I try not to look at Twitter too often these days, to be honest with you,” Ryan said.