download

By Scott Wong, The Hill–

Donald Trump’s comments criticizing a judge because of his ethnic background are “the textbook definition of racist comments,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday during an event on poverty in Washington D.C.

“I regret these comments that he made,” Ryan said. “Saying a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of the textbook definition of racist comments. … I think that should be absolutely disavowed.”

Ryan, who also criticized Trump’s comments last week, was bombarded with questions about Trump at an event to highlight the House GOP’s policy agenda – beginning with poverty reform.

“I think they’re wrong. I don’t think they’re right-headed,” the Speaker, who endorsed Trump last week, said of the remarks.

He later called the comments “indefensible” but would not say he’s rescinding his endorsement.

The flurry of questions about the presumptive GOP nominee highlights the difficult challenge faced by Ryan and other GOP leaders, who are backing Trump as their nominee but seeing his controversies crowd out their efforts to talk policy.

Ryan conceded that Trump’s comments do “undercut” the House GOP’s efforts to put forth a policy agenda this election year.

“I’m not going to even pretend to defend them,” Ryan said. ” I’m going to defend our ideas. Im going to defend our agenda. What matters to us most is our principles and the policies that come from those principles, and our ability to give the people of this country a better way forward.”

Ryan repeatedly said Tuesday that he was backing Trump because he believes the nation is far better off with the Republican nominee than Hillary Clinton as president.

He said the poverty reform proposals discussed on Tuesday would be more likely to become law in a Trump administration.

Ryan also made a pledge for unity, saying the GOP would be “doomed” if it is divided in November. He said it is more likely that GOP ideas will become law if Republicans are unified.

“If we go into the fall divided,” he said, “we are doomed to fail.”

Trump has spurred criticism for saying a federal judge would be biased against him in a lawsuit against Trump University because his parents were born in Mexico.