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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said Thursday he was not ready to support presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
"I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," said Ryan, the highest-elected Republican in the country.
Paul Ryan on Donald Trump: "I hope to support our nominee" https://t.co/xzLaxvkTPe https://t.co/JH8mg3p8CZ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 5, 2016
Ryan said Trump needed to unify each wing of the GOP and prove to conservatives that he was devoted to its principles.
"At this point, I think he needs to unify this party," Ryan repeatedly told host Jake Tapper.
Ryan said that it was "time to set aside bullying, set aside belittling" and "appeal to what is better in us."
"We've got a ways to go from here to there," he said.
The speaker, who still ruled out accepting the GOP nomination, said he would still chair the convention, regardless of if he could get behind Trump as the nominee.
Speaker Paul Ryan says he's still ruling out the possibility of a presidential run https://t.co/xzLaxvkTPe https://t.co/NTPZDFCLr9— CNN Politics (@CNN Politics) 1462480345.0
A spokesperson for Trump was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier this year, Ryan told TheBlaze in a wide-ranging interview that 2016 needed to be focused on policy, not personality.
“To me, if we make this a personality contest, we lose. If we make it an ideas contest, we win. That’s just the way I see it," he said at the time.
During the same interview, he said that leaders of the party have an "obligation" to challenge the "anger" voters have "into a constructive use so we can get a mandate to fix the country's big problems."
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