Less than 24 hours after endorsing Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan has returned to criticizing him. This time, Ryan “completely” disagrees with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s comments about the judge handling a fraud case against him.
“Look, the comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field for my mind,” the Wisconsin Republican told WISN radio Friday afternoon. “It’s reasoning I don’t relate to.”
Trump told the Wall Street Journal Thursday that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict of interest” and should recuse himself from the case against Trump University because he’s “Mexican.”
“I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Trump said in an interview.
“I completely disagree with the thinking behind that,” Ryan argued on Friday.
The House speaker, who declined to endorse Trump for months before claiming Thursday that “good conversations” with the billionaire led to his support, said Trump “clearly says and does things” he disagrees with that he’s “had to speak up from time to time when that has occurred.”
“And I’ll continue to do that if it’s necessary,” Ryan added. “I hope it’s not.”
Trump’s comments about Curiel have attracted criticism from a handful of Republican lawmakers and his very own surrogates.
CNN contributor Kayleigh McEnany, a Trump loyalist, said the candidate’s remark about Curiel’s heritage was “off-base” and does nothing to help him win much-needed minority voters in the general election.
“It’s not relevant, and he shouldn’t have made that comment — that’s for sure,” McEnany told CNN on Friday. “It does make it harder to win the Hispanic community by making this comment.”
