The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Friday he’s “comfortable” with the fact that it’s going to take some time in certain cases for people to work through differences, after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday he wasn’t yet ready to support presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“I’m being honest: He says he’s not there yet, but he wants to get there,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said at a Politico breakfast.
Mr. Priebus said when he spoke to Mr. Trump Thursday, the billionaire businessman’s mood wasn’t “furious or anything.”
“It was just like, ’What do I need to do?’ ” he said. “And so I said … my view is, just relax and be gracious, and I’ll talk to Paul and we’ll try to work on this.”
Mr. Trump issued a statement Thursday in response saying he wasn’t ready to support Mr. Ryan’s agenda. He said Friday during an appearance on Fox News that he was surprised by Mr. Ryan’s comments but that he plans to meet with the speaker next week.
“I know Paul really well, and I know he’s being honest,” Mr. Priebus said. “And I know how he feels, and so I’m comfortable with the idea that it’s going to take some time in some cases for people to work through differences.”
“And so we talked about it, and talked about it multiple times, and they’re very comfortable with sitting down with Donald Trump, and it may be at my office, it may be somewhere else, but we’re going to have that meeting and start the process of unifying,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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