House Speaker Paul Ryan says he won’t put members of the Republican Party in a position they don’t want to be in when it comes to supporting Donald Trump.
“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience. Of course, I wouldn’t do that,” Ryan told NBC News’ Chuck Todd in an interview for “Meet the Press.”
A preview of the interview aired Friday on “Morning Joe,” with the full interview set to air Sunday.
“Look, believe me, Chuck, I get this. This is a very strange situation. This is a very unique nominee,” he said, adding “But I feel as a responsibility, institutionally, as the speaker of the House, that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party.
According to Ryan, if he does so, it “will definitely knock us out of the White House.”
In a different preview of the interview that aired Thursday, Ryan said the FBI has warned Congress not to do anything that could undermine terrorism investigations.
“So we can’t just be very clumsy, and rush to judgment, and do something that actually harms our ability to do terrorist investigations,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to get it right. And we’re going to take a deep breath, and make sure that this is done correctly, so that the policy of making sure that the authorities know, and have time to respond to if a person who is on a terrorist watch list is trying to buy a gun, that they’re notified.”
