WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday decried ugliness and divisiveness in American politics, delivering a veiled but passionate rebuke to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and the nasty tone of his campaign.
“When passions flair, ugliness is sometimes inevitable. But we shouldn’t accept ugliness as the norm,” Ryan told an invited audience of congressional interns on Capitol Hill.
“If someone has a bad idea, we tell them why our idea is better. We don’t insult them into agreeing with us,” he said.
The Wisconsin Republican never mentioned Trump’s name or that of any other candidate, Republican or Democratic. But his target was clear in a sometimes frightful campaign season that’s featured insults, sucker-punches and near-riots more often than substantive policy debates.
“It did not used to be this bad, and it does not have to be this way,” Ryan said.