House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday he hopes presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump can get past recent “antics” and run a campaign Republicans can say they’re proud of.
Mr. Trump has received criticism from some Republicans for recently questioning the impartiality of a federal judge overseeing a fraud case against his Trump University because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.
“Do I think that these kinds of antics are distracting and give us a campaign that we cannot be [proud] of? Yeah,” Mr. Ryan said in an interview with WISN radio. “I’ve spoken very clearly about it.
“But I think and hope and believe that he can fix this to the point where he can hopefully run a campaign that we can all be proud of,” he said.
Mr. Ryan announced last week he is supporting Mr. Trump, but has disavowed the presumptive nominee’s comments about Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
The speaker said Tuesday that claiming a person can’t do a job because of their race is “sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment.”
Mr. Trump has said his remarks have been misconstrued.
Mr. Ryan is also in the midst of helping roll out parts of the House GOP’s agenda, which on Thursday will entail a national security plan.
He said what he can control “is what we do here in Congress.”
“And what we’re doing is giving the country a choice and offering very specific solutions based on our conservative, constitutional founding principles,” he said. “That’s what I can control, that’s what I’m doing and that’s what we are hoping to offer.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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