House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., claimed on Thursday that Republicans would not be calling for the impeachment of a Democratic president if they had been accused of the same indiscretions as Trump. Ryan also defended the president's decision to tell former FBI Director James Comey to close the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, because Trump is "new to this," according to multiple news reports.
When a reporter asked Ryan on Thursday if Republicans would be calling for a Democrat accused of the same actions as Trump to be impeached, he insisted that would not be the case. "No. I don’t think we would, actually. I don’t think that’s at all the case," Ryan said, according to The Hill.
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"What I got out of that testimony is, we now know why he was so frustrated when the FBI director told him three times there’s no investigation of him, yet that speculation was allowed to continue," Ryan added.
But the speaker of the House refused to denounce Trump's decisions or conversations with Comey by citing the president's lack of experience in governance as justification.
"I would just say that of course there needs to be a degree of independence between [the Department of Justice], FBI and the White House and a line of communications established. The president’s new at this. He’s new to government, and so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI and White Houses. He’s just new to this," Ryan said, according to the Washington Post.
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