Ryan: Trump’s comments ‘textbook definition’ of racism But he’s better than Hillary Clinton, the House speaker said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan again rebuked Donald Trump for his attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican heritage, saying the presumptive GOP nominee's remarks are the "textbook" definition of racist comments.

Ryan said he "absolutely disavowed" Trump's remarks, adding he doesn't even understand the line of thinking behind Trump's rationale.


"Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment," Ryan said at a press conference in Washington Tuesday to unveil a new anti-poverty plan. "If you say something that's wrong, I think the mature and responsible thing is to acknowledge it."

But the speaker said Trump is still a better choice than Hillary Clinton for Republicans who want conservative change, and the GOP can't be afford to be at odds during the general election.

"I think if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are doomed to lose," Ryan said, after remarking that "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."

Trump’s surrogates fired back at Ryan, taking to heart the media mogul’s directive to attack opponents as racist.

“Speaker Ryan has apparently switched positions and is now supporting identity politics, which is racist. I mean, I am astonished, astonished,” Trump surrogate Jeffery Lord said on CNN. “I am accusing anybody, anybody, who believes in identity politics, which he apparently now does, of playing the race card. The Republican establishment is playing this. Senator McConnell is playing this. These people have run and hid and borrowed the Democratic agenda of playing the race card.”

Trump has come under fire for repeatedly attacking Gonzalo Curiel, the Indiana-born judge presiding over a case against Trump University. Trump has questioned Curiel's impartiality because of his Mexican heritage.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) also slammed Trump's remarks and called on the presumptive nominee, yet again, to start acting like a general election candidate.

"We are all encouraging Donald Trump to quit the outrageous comments, to concentrate on unifying the party and talk about the issues that the American people are concerned about," McConnell said on Fox Business Network. "He needs to change and go in a different direction if he's going to win in November."

Ryan, less than a day after his Trump endorsement last week, told a Wisconsin radio show Friday that Trump's comments were "out of left field" and a line of thinking he completely disagrees with.

"And so, he clearly says and does things I don’t agree with, and I’ve had to speak up from time to time when that has occurred, and I’ll continue to do that if it’s necessary. I hope it’s not," Ryan said on the show.

Later on Tuesday, Ryan told CBS Radio that he hopes Trump "learns a lesson" from the episode.

“Hopefully this is an inflection point," the speaker said. "Hopefully a lesson will be learned here."



Louis Nelson contributed.