WASHINGTON – Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has a history of supporting open borders and amnesty, which puts him on the opposite side of that argument from President Donald Trump.

And just lately he's gotten attention for openly supporting special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the "Russia" claims, and who is no favorite of Trump's.

The political positions Ryan takes are drawing comment from Paul Nehlen, who challenged Ryan during the 2016 GOP primary, and plans to do so again in 2018.

Ryan's agenda was on full display four years ago, when he took the stage with Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez to outline a plan for open borders, a policy that would allow companies to hire as many foreign workers as they want.

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Ryan said "[America] is not just a country," instead referring to the United States as an "idea," under which immigration should be unlimited.

Gutierrez further complimented Ryan on his historical support for open borders, noting that he "was an original co-sponsor of comprehensive immigration reform," and relaying a conversation he had with Ryan in which Ryan declared, "I don't want to do [immigration reform] because it's the political thing to do, I want to do it cause it's the right thing to do."

This week, Rep. Luis Gutierrez claimed that if Democrats win a majority in the House, they will "eliminate" Donald Trump as president.

Similarly this week, Paul Ryan stated that it's not the job of congressional Republicans to support President Trump, brushing off conflict of interest concerns surrounding Mueller and the Russian election interference investigation.

Top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has said that Mueller's legal team is a "band of Democratic donors," pointing out the evidence of those donations to Democrats from those Mueller has hired.

President Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt" and denounced it as a waste of time, tweeting that "Jared Kushner did very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians. Witch Hunt. Next up, 11 year old Barron Trump!"

Jared Kushner did very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians. Witch Hunt. Next up, 11 year old Barron Trump! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

The comments from Ryan came only a day after Trump tweeted that Republicans "do very little to protect their president."

Ryan defended Mueller and his position as special counsel, saying that Mueller is "anything but" a partisan, and that the "facts will vindicate themselves" in the case.

Ryan stressed further that regarding the investigation itself, congressional Republicans are "not spending all of our time on this. Because that's not what we were elected to do, we were elected to solve people's problems and focus on their issues and that's what we're focused on."

Paul Nehlen, a pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is challenging Ryan in Wisconsin's 1st district, blasted Ryan's response on Twitter, claiming that "Ryan never misses an opportunity to undermine [President Trump]" and that Ryan has spent more time defending Mueller rather than defending "this nation from illegal aliens," defending President Trump, and defunding "Obama's spending priorities."

So Paul Ryan's job is to defend Mueller, not

- defend this nation from illegal aliens

- defend Trump

- defund Obama's spending priorities — Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) July 25, 2017

Nehlen is the author of "Wage the Battle" and director of "Hijrah: Radical Islam's Global Invasion."

"Stop and think about how much good work we could do if Paul Ryan was an America First guy," Nehlen told WND. "Unfortunately, Paul Ryan is a Paul Ryan First guy. That's why I need 50,000 people to commit to donate $10 per month to my campaign to rid us of Paul Ryan's selfish undermining of President Trump. I don't want to take big donations from all of the top brass at corporations."

"I want to be beholden to you, the American voters who elected President Trump," Nehlen continued.

Nehlen claims that Ryan is "building a wall" around the Trump agenda rather than building the border wall Trump campaigned on, and that Ryan is beholden to outside interests, pointing to the vast majority of his campaign finances coming from outside Wisconsin.

"Paul Ryan will continue to knife President Trump at every opportunity," Nehlen said. "I want to get between them to protect the president. It is critical you take a moment and support my campaign. Ryan will inflict death by a thousand cuts if I don't get elected to put a stop to his personal jihad on President Trump."

"Wage the Battle" and "Hijrah: Radical Islam's Global Invasion," both are available at the WND Superstore.