Latest update : 2016-05-06
US House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said Thursday he was not ready to support Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee in November’s general election.
“To be perfectly candid with you, I’m not ready to do
that yet,” Ryan told CNN in a bombshell interview that heightened
concerns about whether conservatives will be able to rally around Trump in his expected matchup against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2012, stressed that
he hoped he would be able to support Trump in the future, provided the
brash billionaire is able to show leadership in unifying the party.
“He’s got some work to do,” Ryan said, noting that the burden was on
Trump to begin the healing process after a brutal primary campaign and
Trump’s long string of insulting remarks.
Ryan has expressed criticism of Trump before. But Thursday’s comments
were all the more startling because Trump has now emerged as the
party’s standard bearer and Ryan, as speaker of the House of
Representatives, will oversee the Republican presidential nominating
convention in July.
“I think that he needs to do more to unify the party... then to go
forward and appeal to all Americans from every walk of life and
background, and a majority of independents,” Ryan said.
He insisted, however, that no Republicans should support Clinton—as several have pledged to do after Trump’s rivals dropped out.
“To be the party and climb the final hill and win, we need a
standardbearer that can unify all—all conservatives and the wings of the
party—and then go to the country with an appealing agenda,” he said.
“The nominee has to lead in that effort.”
Both Bush presidents—George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush—have
signalled they will not endorse Trump in 2016, while Mitt Romney, the
2012 nominee on the ticket with Ryan, is reportedly not going to attend
the Republican convention.
(AFP)
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