The top elected Republican, Paul Ryan, said on Thursday he was not ready to endorse Donald Trump, a sign of the challenges the party’s presumptive presidential nominee faces rallying the Republican establishment behind his White House bid.
Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said conservatives wanted to know if Trump shares their values.
“I hope to support our nominee, I hope to support his candidacy fully,” Ryan said on CNN. “At this point, I’m just not there right now.”
Trump, who has built a huge following with an anti-establishment message, shot back at Ryan in a statement.
“I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda. Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people,” he said.
The Republican National Committee, under pressure to unify the party or face an electoral rout in the Nov. 8 election, said Ryan and Trump were expected to meet soon. It added that “only a united Republican Party will be able to beat Hillary Clinton.”
“We respect Speaker Ryan’s opinion and believe that since the primary ended early we will have time to unify. We anticipate the two meeting soon to begin to help unite the party,” said RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.
Trump’s last remaining rivals in the Republican race, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, dropped out this week, clearing the New York billionaire’s path to be picked as the presidential nominee. He will likely face Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, in the Nov. 8 general election.
Many Republicans have grappled this week with whether to support Trump, who has deviated from the party line on trade and upset the party establishment with offensive comments about women and immigrants. Trump on Thursday announced a new campaign finance chairman in response to questions about his readiness for a general election race.
TAKING ON CLINTON
Trump, speaking to thousands at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Thursday night, sharpened his criticism of Clinton, the kind of tactic that some Republican strategists believe will help unify the party.
He blasted Clinton for saying recently she would impose clean-energy policies that would put coal miners out of business. He put on a hard hat presented to him by the state’s coal miners’ association and made a shoveling motion.
“And for those miners, get ready: You’re going to be working your asses off,” he said.
In a sign some Republicans are rallying around Trump, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, whose family has helped bankroll the anti-Trump group Our Principles, is set to endorse Trump on Friday when the candidate visits Omaha.
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2016 nomination, told CNN he now supported Trump as well.
Ryan criticized Trump in December for proposing to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States and knocked him in March for failing to denounce white supremacist groups during a television interview.
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