House Speaker Paul Ryan has limits to what he’ll accept from presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump — it’s just that, apparently, Trump hasn’t crossed that line yet.

In a sit-down interview in his ceremonial Capitol Hill office on Thursday, Ryan told The Huffington Post that Trump does not have “a blank check” with his endorsement. “I don’t know what that line is,” Ryan said, “but right now, I want to make sure that we win the White House.”

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On the topic of Trump’s proposed Muslim ban and his statements that he could enact such a policy without Congress, Ryan noted that Republicans were releasing part of their agenda on executive overreach that very day, and, in news that’s sure to please Trump, Ryan suggested that he and the House of Representatives were prepared to sue a Republican president if need be.

“I would sue any president that exceeds his or her powers,” Ryan said.

It’s unclear, however, if Ryan thinks Trump enacting a ban on Muslims entering the country would actually exceed presidential powers. “That’s a legal question that there’s a good debate about,” Ryan said, pointing to the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.

Another area where the speaker seems willing to give the president plenty of latitude is on an Authorization for Use of Military Force. Congress has been using the same broadly written AUMF for nearly 15 years to justify military action in the Middle East. Asked if Congress had a moral responsibility to vote on a new authorization, Ryan made it clear that he’d prefer to have a vote, but doesn’t think it’s necessary.

“I would like to have an AUMF, but I am not going to bring an AUMF to the floor that the president insists upon, which is one that ties the hands of the next president,” he said.

Ryan entered the speakership last October promising a more free-flowing debate and open legislative process. But he has confronted a number of the same intra-party dynamics that faced his predecessor, former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Still, Ryan said in April that he thought he was doing the job better than Boehner. With continued problems in getting a budget done, however, and with Ryan feeling the need to clamp down on the open process that he once promised, Ryan walked that comment back a bit on Thursday.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul...4b0df4d586f9973

Quote: PzLdr wrote in post #2

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Ryan's just looking for a chance, and a plausible excuse, to jump ship. ANY excuse. What a major league POS.

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