Paul Ryan Admits Trump ‘Messed Up’ In Response To Charlottesville (Video)

Though tepid, Ryan’s comments are an important part of the chorus of Republican calling out Trump by name over Charlottesville.

During a CNN town hall Monday night, Paul Ryan reluctantly admitted that Donald Trump screwed up the response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.

Though Ryan said that he thought Trump’s scripted remarks that Monday were “pitch-perfect.”

“I do think he could have done better, I think he needed to do better,” said Ryan.

“I do believe that he messed up in his comments on Tuesday, when it sounded like a moral equivocation, or at the very least moral ambiguity. When we need extreme moral clarity.”

Jake Tapper then returned to the question of whether there were any “fine people” at the neo-Nazi rally.

“There were not any very fine people at that rally,” Tapper said to a round of applause. “It wasn’t morally ambiguous, it was morally wrong: what the president said.”

“I have a hard time believing – if you’re standing in a crowd to protest something and you see all these anti-semitic slogans, and ‘heel Hitlers’ and swastikas – that you’re not a good person,” Ryan responded.”

“This is very clear. I totally agree with that. That’s why I think it was not only morally ambiguous, it was equivocating. And that was wrong. That’s why I think it was very, very important that he has since then cleared that up. I think it was important that he did that tonight.”

Watch the videos here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

[image via CNN screenshot]