DELAVAN, Wis. (AP) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that he chose not to hold town halls while visiting his southeastern Wisconsin congressional district because he doesn’t want constituents to be harassed. Ryan also declined to comment on President Donald Trump’s tweets insinuating the president may record phone conversations.
Ryan made a pair of stops in his district Friday that were closed to the public, taking questions from high school students in Lake Geneva followed by a tour of a factory in Delavan where he held a brief news conference. Earlier in the day, Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan - whose district borders Ryan’s in Wisconsin - held a town hall in nearby Kenosha to emphasize Ryan’s absence.
Ryan said he didn’t have any feelings about the Pocan town hall and defended not holding any of his own so far this year.
“It’s not that I’m not doing town halls,” Ryan said. “I’m getting around to see constituents all the time. I’m doing office hours, I’m doing telephone town halls, I’m doing business interviews. I’m doing it in a way so constituents don’t go into a harassing environment.”
Town halls for Republican lawmakers have been increasingly tense and confrontational in recent months nationwide, as voters voice frustrations over efforts to repeal the federal health care law enacted by then-President Barack Obama. Ryan has been a leading advocate for repealing the law and helped forge the deal that got a bill passed in the House to do just that.
When asked about Trump’s messages earlier Friday on Twitter that implied he may have recorded phone conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, Ryan refused to comment. White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly refused on Friday to address whether recording devices had been placed in the White House.
“I’ve decided I’m not going to comment on the tweets of the day or the hour,” Ryan said. “I’m going to leave it to the president to talk about and defend his tweets.”
Ryan also deflected a question about whether he would be OK with Trump recording their conversations, saying: “I’d have to give some thought to that.”
During his stop earlier Friday at Badger High School in Lake Geneva, Ryan fielded questions from students. They didn’t ask about Trump, and Ryan never mentioned the president’s name. He did say he avoids Twitter, the social media platform Trump used in the past to attack Ryan and continues to use to vilify opponents.
“I try not to look at Twitter too much these days to be honest with you,” Ryan quipped, leading to giggles from the students.
About 50 protesters gathered outside during Ryan’s visit to the high school. His tour of Prestige Paints was closed to the public.
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