PrintSpeaker Ryan to NeverTrumpers: He won 'fair and square'
Speaker Paul Ryan continued his tightrope dance, trying to placate all sides in the Republican party. He attended the anti-Trump Mitt Romney retreat in Utah and has called Trump's comments about the Hispanic judge "beyond the pale."
But on ABC's This Week, Ryan tried to scotch any effort at overturning Trump's nomination at the convention, saying that Trump got enough delegates to claim victory and that he won "fair and square."
While some conservatives are still holding out hope that there is a way to block presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump from securing the nomination at the Republican convention next month, House Speaker Paul Ryan isn’t one of them.
"The way I see it is he won the thing fair and square," Ryan told George Stephanopoulos in an interview airing on "This Week" Sunday.
"Seventeen people competed, one person won and he got the delegates," Ryan added. "The delegates ultimately decide these things, but he won fair and square."
Trump reached the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination at the end of May, damping down talk of a contested GOP convention in Cleveland.
But some Republicans, including Weekly Standard editor and ABC News contributor Bill Kristol, have not lost hope of recruiting a third party alternative to the billionaire businessman, or of using the rules of the convention to block Trump's nomination.
The house speaker endorsed Trump last week in an op-ed for The Janesville Gazette.
"I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That's why I'll be voting for him this fall," Ryan wrote.
Ryan said at Romney's retreat that he eventually endorsed Trump because of his obligations as an important leader in the Republican party. His attempt to discourage a revolt against Trump at the convention is for the same reason. Any move to deny Trump the nomination would tear the party apart and lead to a disaster in November. The very reason the NeverTrumpers give for trying to stop Trump - that he would lose badly to Clinton - would become a self-fulfilling prophecy if they attempted a coup at the convention.
Ryan's attempt to have a foot in both pro and anti Trump camps will end up with neither side trusting him. If Trump wins the presidency, I can't see him remaining as speaker. And he might not want the thankless job of minority leader if Republicans lose the House.
