Divide party

Ryan: I won't divide party over Trump

By Nick Gass

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) may be supporting Donald Trump, but the Republican leader says he would not ask others in his party to back the presumptive nominee if it is against their conscience.

"The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that's contrary to their conscience. Of course, I wouldn't do that," Ryan told NBC News' Chuck Todd in an interview for "Meet the Press," a portion of which aired Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Ryan remarked, "Look, believe me, Chuck, I get this. This is a very strange situation. This is a very unique nominee."

"But I feel as a responsibility, institutionally, as the speaker of the House, that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party," Ryan said. "Because you know what I know that will do?. That will definitely knock us out of the White House."

Ryan also told Todd that he preferred not to rush the congressional response to the Orlando attack.

"So we can't just be very clumsy, and rush to judgment, and do something that actually harms our ability to do terrorist investigations," he said. "We've got to get it right. And we're going to take a deep breath, and make sure that this is done correctly, so that the policy of making sure that the authorities know, and have time to respond to if a person who is on a terrorist watch list is trying to buy a gun, that they're notified."