<u+201c>i<u+2019>m not looking backwards; i<u+2019>m looking forward,<u+201d> paul ryan responded. | getty by rachael bade 11/15/16 12:22 pm est speaker paul ryan on tuesday deflected questions about breitbart<u+2019>s controversial coverage of his personal life under the direction of top donald trump adviser steve bannon. ryan was asked about earlier breitbart stories that criticized his decision to enroll his children in private school, questioned his catholic faith and promoted his trump-inspired primary opponent. story continued below <u+201c>i<u+2019>m not looking backwards; i<u+2019>m looking forward,<u+201d> ryan responded.. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m looking to the future and i<u+2019>m looking forward to how we make this work for the american people and how we make president trump the most successful president in a lifetime." trump hired bannon, who led the <u+201c>alt-right<u+201d> publication that has been criticized for publishing racist and anti-semitic content, as his chief strategist on sunday. before the election, several newspapers reported that bannon wanted to pressure ryan out of the speakership for distancing himself from trump. but bannon has been reaching out to senior republicans to build relationships, playbook reported tuesday. breitbart has continued to challenge ryan since the election. it published a few stories last weekend critical of the speaker's comments about trump and immigration. one described ryan as supportive of "open borders and cheap labor," a characterization that ryan and his allies would dispute. asked about trump<u+2019>s decision to have his children serve as advisers in his new administration, ryan said he<u+2019>d allow <u+201c>the transition team to comment,<u+201d> but later added, <u+201c>what<u+2019>s wrong with that?<u+201d> <u+201c>we're focused on doing our job in congress,<u+201d> ryan said. <u+201c>donald trump is a successful businessman who has been successful because he surrounded himself with good people. he is a man who has made great successes, created tens of thousands of jobs because he gets goods advice from people around him in his life. what's wrong with that? that's a good thing. we're going to focus on our job in congress. he's going to focus on his administration.<u+201d> ryan also pushed back on the notion that trump's agenda isn<u+2019>t entirely in line with conservative values. trump, for instance, wants to spend $1 trillion on roads and bridges <u+2014> though congress just last year approved hundreds of billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending and few republicans are eager to spend more. <u+201c>look, we're excited <u+2014> we're on the same page with our president-elect,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>i talk with donald trump virtually every day. i spoke with mike pence this morning. we're working hand-in-glove and we're going to make sure this is a very successful administration.<u+201d> by bill scher by joshua zeitz by thomas wright by jack shafer
ryan waves off bannon queries - politico
rachael bade jack shafer