Full Sunday exclusive interview to air this Sunday on “Meet the Press”
JUNE 17, 2016 – In a Sunday exclusive interview, House Speaker Paul Ryan told moderator Chuck Todd that when it comes to supporting Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump: “The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience.”
“I get that this is a very strange situation. He’s a very unique nominee,” Ryan said. “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.”
A transcript of this exchange is below, and video is available here: http://nbcnews.to/1Xtp8P2.
Tune in this Sunday to “Meet the Press” for the full exclusive interview as well as an interview with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Excerpts of the interview may be used subject to the following restrictions:
- Mandatory credit to NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on first reference.
- The onscreen “Meet the Press” credit must be clearly visible and unobstructed at all times in any image, video clip, or other form of media.
- Embedded web video must stream from the NBCNews.com media player with the unobstructed credit as described above.
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MANDATORY CREDIT: NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD”
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CHUCK: Do you think it is that members in the House Republican Conference follow your conscience? If you don’t want to support him, don’t. Do it —
PAUL RYAN:
Oh, absolutely. 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. Look, believe me, Chuck. I get that this is a very strange situation. He’s a very unique nominee. 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. Because you know what I know that’ll do? That’ll definitely knock us out of the White House.
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