GOP is not Trump’s party: US House speaker

US House Speaker Paul Ryan says the GOP is not Donald Trump’s party although he was nominated during a “fair” process.

Ryan, whose ties with Trump have been in tatters since the primaries, said last week that he finally cast a ballot for the property tycoon.

The highest elected GOP official also wrote an op-ed for CNN, urging Americans to back the billionaire.

The move came despite his criticism of Trump’s statements and his hesitation to announce endorsement not until the Republican convention.

During an interview on WTMJ in Milwaukee on Monday, the speaker of the US House of Representatives said, “No one person controls this party. This is a bottom-up, organic grassroots party based on conservative principles.”

However, he admitted that Trump’s nomination has been fair by saying, “As a party leader, as the highest elected official in the party, I have always felt a duty to the process, to democracy, to the primary voter who must be respected. And he won this fair and square.”

Ryan has previously criticized Trump’s calls for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States and has described his anti-Hispanic comments as the “textbook definition” of racism.

He even said he would not campaign alongside Trump anymore after the former realty TV star’s claims of sexual assault in a 2005 recording were leaked, despite which the speaker offered last week to do so.

In the interview, Ryan implied that he had no choice but to back Trump rather than causing more division in the party.

“What do you think helps Ron Johnson and Mike Gallagher and all our candidates across the country more in the closing two days of an election: having party discord and having party leaders snub each other, or unifying the Republican Party and focusing and prosecuting our case against Hillary Clinton?"

“What helps Republicans more: infighting or unifying, focusing on Clinton or focusing on our differences as Republicans?” stated the speaker. “I don’t want to harm our team going into the election. I want to unify our team going into the election so as many of our candidates as possible can win this election.”

Ryan also rejected speculations that he would step down after Tuesday when his party’s flag-bearer will face Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“They love doing these intrigue stories. It’s because I didn’t ask for this job in the first place, so they are saying why would he want to keep it now?” Ryan said. “I am going to stay. You know why? Because I moved our majority to put out a very coherent agenda. We have it, we’re running on it, now I want to stay and execute it.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir