Paul Ryan On Trump: My Endorsements Are Not ‘Blank Checks’

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., speaks during a breakfast with Pennsylvania delegates during the Republican National Convention on, Monday, July 18, 2016, in Westlake, Ohio. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Thursday that his endorsement of Donald Trump does not give the Republican nominee “blank checks.”

The comment came while Ryan was addressing Trump’s hesitance to endorse him in his primary.

“The only endorsements that I want are those of my own employers here in the First Congressional District. And that’s really what my focus is,” Ryan said on Wisconsin radio station WTAQ about Trump’s snub before pivoting to his own endorsement of the GOP nominee.

“As you know, when I first talked about this, when I did support Donald, I said at that time, and ever since then, if I see a situation where our conservative principles are being distorted, I’m going to stand up for those conservative principles,” Ryan continued. If I see and hear things that I think are wrong, I’m not going to sit by and say nothing. Because I think I have a duty as a Republican leader to defend Republican principles and our party’s brand if I think they’re being distorted.”

When asked if there could “ever be a bridge too far” that might prompt him to pull his endorsement of Trump, Ryan indicated that he hasn’t given Trump a blank check, but he would not expand further.

“I’ve always said, of course, there are — I’m not going to get into the speculation or hypothetical,” he said. “None of these things are blank checks. That goes with any situation in any kind of race.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Prove it !

  2. They’re not worth the teabags they’re written on, Eddie.

  3. “when I did support Donald, I said at that time,…”

    In the dim, dark past, not necessarily true any more.

  4. Avatar for cmj cmj says:

    Coward

  5. If insulting Gold Star families, telling a mother to get her crying baby out of your convention, asking a foreign power to spy on your political opponents, refusing to endorse GOP elected officials who endorsed you after you begged them, claiming anyone of an entire religion is an existential threat to the United States, insulting firefighters for enforcing a contract your campaign signed isn’t enough to rescind your endorsement then there is no “bridge too far” and you have issued a “blank check.”

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