House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Sunday contradicted President Donald Trump’s assertion Sunday that Republicans were shirking their duty to “protect” him from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which he again called a “witch hunt.”

“Why aren’t you, why aren’t Republicans in general, defending Donald Trump more against what is becoming an obvious witch hunt here with Robert Mueller?” Wisconsin radio host Jay Weber asked Ryan Monday morning (listen at 84:28).

Weber pointed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s friendship with ousted FBI Director James Comey, and lawyers on Mueller’s investigative team’s past donations to Hillary Clinton. Both lines have been used by the White House, and Trump himself, in the past in an attempt to discredit the special counsel investigation.

“Remember, Bob Mueller is a Republican who was appointed by a Republican who served in a Republican administration and stayed on until his term ended,” Ryan responded. “But I don’t think many people are saying Bob Mueller is a person who is a biased partisan. He’s really sort of anything but.”

“The point is, we have an investigation in the House, an investigation in the Senate, and a special counsel, which sort of depoliticizes this stuff, and gets it out of the political theater,” Ryan continued. “That is, I think, better, to get this off to the side. I think the facts will vindicate themselves. And then, let’s just go do our jobs.”

“So what we’re not focused on doing is spending all of our time on Russia, spending all of our time on this intrigue,” Ryan concluded. “We want to spend our time focusing on solving people’s problems.”