Paul Ryan, Explaining Trump Support, Says ‘Principles and Policies’ Six Times in a Minute

Speaker Paul Ryan, After an Awkward Courtship, Endorses Donald Trump (The New York Times)

Ending weeks of reluctance to embrace his party’s presumptive nominee, Speaker Paul D. Ryan endorsed Donald J. Trump for president on Thursday in a modest but unequivocal backing of a candidate whose views Mr. Ryan has frequently condemned.

In a column in his hometown newspaper in Janesville, Wis., Mr. Ryan said that recent conversations with Mr. Trump had convinced him that the billionaire developer will help advance the conservative agenda that the speaker is trying to introduce.

“Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives,” said Mr. Ryan, who is also chairman of the Republican National Convention that will nominate Mr. Trump. “That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.”