Katrina Pierson, the national spokesperson for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, said on CNN's New Day that House Speaker Paul Ryan should not be in his role if he won't support Trump's campaign on Friday. This comes a day after exchanges between Ryan and Trump on whether they will support one another.
"If the Republican speaker of the House does not come around to supporting the Republican nominee, do you think that Paul Ryan is still fit to be speaker?" host Josh Berman asked.
"No, because this is about the party. Look, you have to understand, the last two presidential cycles, we were told John McCain was a conservative. His conservative review scorecard is 37 percent. We were told Mitt Romney was a conservative and he was pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-adoption, gave us Obamacare," Pierson said. "We were told to hold our noses and vote for the sake of the party. These same people are now telling us that because their guy didn't win, they want to hurt the party. This issue here isn't about Donald Trump. If you can't hold yourself to the standard that you hold everyone else, the problem is with you."
"So, just to be clear, when I said should Paul Ryan still be speaker if he doesn't support Donald Trump, you say no?" Berman asked.
"He's speaker of what? Just speaker of the House of Representatives? We are a party. Paul Ryan needs to be, he's the leader right now," Pierson said. "We're told Donald Trump is only the presumptive nominee. He's not the nominee until 1,237. So really it's incumbent on Paul Ryan to help bring unity to the party."
"Is that the position of Donald Trump and the campaign right now, either Paul Ryan gets on board or we don't want him?" Berman asked.
"They're going to meet next week. We'll find out," Pierson said.