House Speaker Ryan Says He And Trump Have Moved Past Differences
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/CBS News/AP) -- House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that he and President-elect Donald Trump have moved beyond their disagreements during the presidential campaign.
In an excerpt that aired on the CBS Evening News Thursday, Ryan (R-Wis.) told Scott Pelley that he and Trump have made up and speak on the phone nearly every day.
On the campaign trail, the two were at odds. Speaker Ryan had called one of Trump's statements racist and Trump dismissed him as ineffective and disloyal, but Ryan says the two are not looking back and are already working together.
Ryan spoke to Pelley on Thursday in Washington in an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. on CBS2.
Scott Pelley: "You called Donald Trump a racist."
Paul Ryan: "No, I didn't. I said his comment was."
Scott Pelley: "Well, I'm not sure there's a great deal of daylight between those two definitions. But he definitely called you ineffective and disloyal. Have you patched it up?"
Paul Ryan: "Yeah, we have. We're fine. We're not looking back. We're looking forward. We -- we actually -- we've had – we -- like I said, we speak about every day. And it's not about looking for-- back in the past. That's behind us. We're way beyond that."
Scott Pelley: "Did you believe he could be nominated? Really?"
Paul Ryan: "Yeah, no, I didn't see this one coming. He knows that. Donald Trump's a very-- he was a very unconventional candidate. He's going to be an unconventional president. What I like about it, in my, like I said, almost daily conversations, is he's just a get-things-done kind of guy."
Scott Pelley: "Have you told him being president is not being CEO of the United States, that the Congress is going to have a say?"
Paul Ryan: "Oh, we've talked about that extensively. We've talked about-- the Constitution, Article I on the Constitution, the separation of powers. He feels very strongly, actually, that-- that, under President Obama's watch, he stripped a lot of power away from the Constitution, away from the Legislative Branch of government. And we want to reset the balance of power, so that people and the Constitution are rightfully restored."
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)