House Speaker Paul Ryan declared Wednesday that he retains confidence in President Donald Trump and cautioned against “rushing to judgment” over the cascading revelations coming out of the White House.
Ryan insisted Congress will exercise its oversight role and gather more information before reaching any conclusions about the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, as well as reports Trump shared sensitive information with the Russians and urged Comey to drop an investigation of a former adviser.
In remarks to reporters, Ryan, R-Wis., endorsed ongoing investigations by House committees, and declined to call for a special prosecutor or select committee, as Democrats and some fellow Republicans have demanded.
And he adopted a skeptical tone toward the reports that have the White House in chaos and lawmakers scrambling to respond.
“We need the facts. It is obvious there are some people out there who want to harm the president,” Ryan said. “But we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party is in the White House and that means before rushing to judgment we get all the pertinent information.”
Addressing news first reported by the New York Times that Trump asked Comey to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Ryan said: “I’m sure we’re going to want to hear from Mr. Comey about why if this happened as he allegedly describes, why he didn’t take action at the time. So there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
Asked on his way out of the news conference whether he still retained confidence in Trump, Ryan replied: “I do.”
Ryan endorsed the House Oversight committee’s request for the FBI turn over all documents and recordings that detail communications between Comey and Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.