Paul Ryan condemns Donald Trump for 'textbook' racism – but will vote for him

Paul Ryan, the House speaker, has condemned Donald Trump for “the textbook definition of a racist comment” but stood by his decision to support the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Ryan’s counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Trump should stop attacking minority groups.

“My advice to our nominee is to start talking about the issues that the American people care about, and to start doing it now,” the Senate Republican leader told reporters on Tuesday. “In addition to that, it’s time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message.”

A press conference on Tuesday illustrated the bind that Ryan, McConnell and other senior Republicans now find themselves in, defending their candidate while distancing themselves f-rom his more outlandish statements, which only deflect attention f-rom their policy vision.

Ryan had invited media to a residential alcohol and drug treatment programme in Anacostia, a predominantly black neighbourhood of Washington, to unveil his proposals to combat poverty, the start of a six-part governing agendaf-rom House Republicans. But questions inevitably focused on Trump, to the irritation of Ryan’s press secretary AshLee Strong, who tweeted: “Way to go reporters: first question at a poverty forum: Trump. Slow clap.”

Ryan has been fiercely criticised in some quarters for caving in and endorsing Trump last week, despite the candidate’s extreme positions. Soon after he did, Trump claimed that district judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a case alleging that Trump University exploited students, cannot judge him fairly because he is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

“I regret those comments that he made,” Ryan said. “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

“But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not ... I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day, and we have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her.”

Ryan had invited media to a residential alcohol and drug treatment programme in Anacostia, a predominantly black neighbourhood of Washington, to unveil his proposals to combat poverty, the start of a six-part governing agendaf-rom House Republicans. But questions inevitably focused on Trump, to the irritation of Ryan’s press secretary AshLee Strong, who tweeted: “Way to go reporters: first question at a poverty forum: Trump. Slow clap.”

Ryan has been fiercely criticised in some quarters for caving in and endorsing Trump last week, despite the candidate’s extreme positions. Soon after he did, Trump claimed that district judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a case alleging that Trump University exploited students, cannot judge him fairly because he is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

“I regret those comments that he made,” Ryan said. “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

“But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not ... I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day, and we have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her.”

He added: “But I do absolutely disavow those comments, I think they’re wrong, I don’t think they’re right-headed, and the thinking behind it is something I don’t even personally relate to. But at the end of the day, this is about ideas. This is about moving our agenda forward and that’s why we’re moving the way we’re moving.”

The questions came after 25 minutes of speeches in which Ryan paid tribute to Shirley Holloway, founder of the House of Help City of Hope residence, and joined several House committee chairmen in arguing for a “bottom up” approach to beating poverty rather than “top down” welfare programmes.

Asked if he was frustrated by Trump undercutting such messages, the speaker admitted frankly: “I do think these kind of comments undercut these things and I’m not even going to pretend to defend them. I’m going to defend our ideas, I’m going to defend our agenda. What matters to us most is our principles and the policies that come f-rom those principles.”

Whatever their qualms about him as a loose canon, Trump is ultimately seen as the pragmatic choice by Ryan and senior Republican allies to maintain party unity, win elections and implement their vision.

Ryan had had an “exhaustive” discussion with Trump personally about anti-poverty policies, he added, “and that is why I believe that we are far better off advancing these policies, getting them into law, with his candidacy than we clearly are with Hillary Clinton.”

George Will, a columnist for the National Review, questioned the calculationbehind Ryan’s compromise. “The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan’s degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power,” he wrote. “This episode should be studied as a clinical case of a particular Washington myopia – the ability of career politicians to convince themselves that they and their agendas are of supreme importance.”

He added: “Ryan has now paid a staggering price by getting along with Trump. And what did Ryan purchase with the coin of his reputation? Perhaps his agenda.”

Visiting House of Help City of Hope for the third time, Ryan claimed his proposals will cre-ate incentives to improve welfare, food and housing aid programmes, reward work (“a good job is the surest way out of poverty”), tailor benefits to people’s needs, improve skills and schools, make it easier for families to plan for retirement and open up the system to accountability and collaboration with local communities, “backing ideas that work on the front lines every day”.

The plan – “A better way” – would make aid more efficient and allow states to make more decisions about how it is distributed.

He argued that far-reaching change is needed because current programs have not changed the poverty rate over the last half century and the government measures success by treating the symptoms of poverty, not finding a cure. “We should measure success based on results, outcomes,” he said.

In a speech in Indiana last week, Barack Obama railed against his Republican critics and said there are fewer families on welfare now than in the 1990s. “Tales about welfare queens, talking about takers, talking about the ‘47%’,” he said, mocking his opponents’ position.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed the Ryan proposal. “Sadly, beneath the sugary rhetoric of the poverty proposal unveiled today, Republicansare advancing the same callous, trickle-down policies they’ve been pushing for years,” she said.

The second part of the Republican agenda, on national security, will be released on Thursday. Initiatives on regulation, constitutional authority, healthcare and tax reform are expected in the coming weeks.

Reuters contributed to this report