Paul Ryan: Everything ‘fair game’ until nominee selected

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) dodged a series of questions Thursday morning about Mitt Romney’s expected attack on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, saying, however, that “everything is fair game” until a nominee is chosen.

“I know Mitt feels strongly about this election, and he’s going to speak his mind,” Ryan said on “Fox and Friends,” adding that Romney is a GOP leader who’s “worried about the future of the party.”

{mosads}”I’m gonna keep my powder dry. I am the Speaker of the House, therefore I’m neutral in this race. I’m the chair of the convention,” Ryan said in declining to offer his own thoughts on the speech Romney is scheduled to deliver Thursday morning at the University of Utah.

Romney is expected to rip Trump as a “fraud” and “phony” in those remarks.

Trump, meanwhile, has unloaded on the 2012 GOP nominee ahead of the address. Trump called Romney a “failed” candidate who “begged” for his endorsement in 2012.

“If you’re the nominee of the party, you want everybody’s endorsement. That’s just how it works,” Ryan said Thursday. “We don’t have a nominee yet. This thing still has a ways to play out.”

“People who are in the party are going to be speaking their minds while we are selecting a nominee, and so everything is fair game on the way to the nomination,” Ryan said. 

Without naming Trump, Ryan on Tuesday denounced the businessman’s comments on the Ku Klux Klan. Trump then warned after his wins on Super Tuesday that if Ryan doesn’t “get along” with him he’s going to “pay a big price.”

Ryan said Thursday that he wants to talk with the handful of candidates in the GOP field, including Trump, in the coming days to discuss issues.

“I just don’t know the Donald,” Ryan said.

“I can only hope and assume that our nominee will want to enact our bold, conservative agenda that we’re going to be offering,” Ryan said.