House Speaker Paul Ryan said that Congress must embrace an "inclusive" agenda to counter any policies pushed by Donald Trump and other Republican candidates that could cost the party the White House next year.
"If we try to play our own version of identity politics and try to fuel ourselves based on darker emotions, that's not productive," Ryan, 45, the Wisconsin Republican and 2014 vice presidential nominee, told
The New York Times on Friday.
"I don’t think it will be successful, and I don’t think it is the right thing to do.
"I believe in an agenda that’s inspirational, that’s inclusive, that's optimistic," he said.
Ryan, who succeeded John Boehner in October after a messy and fractious uprising led by conservative Republicans, said that he would support the eventual nominee but raised concerns about the tenor of the campaign as state primaries and caucuses near.
"This isn’t about Trump," Ryan told the Times of the front-runner. "This is about do we run on substance or do we run on personality? If we run on personality, we lose those elections."
He added that he expected to have a role in the nominating process. As speaker, he will serve as the chairman of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next July.
"I will use this bully pulpit as effectively as I can," Ryan said. "For now, it's the bully pulpit we have."
The congressman told the Times that Republicans would meet in January to define their agenda, which he said would include tax reform and criminal justice reform. Ryan said the latter was "an issue I didn’t fully grasp until I spent time learning about how people are trying to redeem themselves and have so many roadblocks in front of them that they can’t."
He also invited members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other minority caucuses to a holiday reception and will seek to broaden the Republican base, the Times reports.
"It means show up and talk to everybody, appeal to everyone."
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