MANITOWOC, Wis. — House Speaker Paul Ryan dodged questions about President Trump’s attacks on him while campaigning in his home state of Wisconsin on Thursday.
Ryan, who is retiring after the 2018 midterm elections, is on the trail for Republicans Gov. Scott Walker and Senate candidate Leah Vukmir.
Trump slammed the top House Republican on Wednesday for dismissing his plan to terminate birthright citizenship via executive order, claiming the Wisconsin Republican knows nothing about the issue. Ryan said such a move would be unconstitutional.
He has yet to respond to Trump’s latest attack, and a spokesman for the lawmaker said Ryan would not be taking questions from reporters on Thursday because he wanted to keep the focus on Walker and Vukmir.
The only time Ryan mentioned Trump by name during his first three campaign stops of the day was when speaking about his desire for Congress to send more bills to the president’s desk.
Instead, while speaking to voters in Waukesha, Fond du Lac, and Manitowoc, Ryan touted Wisconsin’s economy and low unemployment rate. The state had a 3 percent unemployment rate in September, ranking among the top states with the lowest rate last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“This doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “This happens because of the right policies. And we have a choice to make in this election. Do we want to continue these good policies that have produced this kind of economy, that have given us a 49-year [low] jobless rate in America, that have given us the highest middle-class wage increases we have seen in over a decade, or not?”
