--- title: Paul Ryan Hits Donald Trump 'Racist Comment' -Transcript description: Here's what Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said about Donald Trump's comments on Judge Gonzalo Curiel at a press conference on Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-07T15:24:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:22.230Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read What Paul Ryan Said About Donald Trump's 'Racist Comment' og:description: "It's absolutely unacceptable" og:url: https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29fe3d2f945f5bd9/698896c6f887dcdbfee962bb/paul-ryan-judge-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4728 og:image:height: 2660 og:image:alt: Speaker Paul Ryan And House Republicans Hold Policy Roundtable On Their Anti-Poverty Plan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read What Paul Ryan Said About Donald Trump's 'Racist Comment' twitter:description: "It's absolutely unacceptable" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29fe3d2f945f5bd9/698896c6f887dcdbfee962bb/paul-ryan-judge-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read What Paul Ryan Said About Donald Trump's 'Racist Comment' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 7, 2016 3:24 PM UTC  U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), speaks while flanked by Bishop Shirley Holloway at the Graceview Apartments, June 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), speaks while flanked by Bishop Shirley Holloway at the Graceview Apartments, June 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 7, 2016 3:24 PM UTC Republican House Speaker [Paul Ryan criticized](http://time.com/4359768/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racism/?xid=homepage) Donald Trump’s [comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel](http://time.com/4356045/donald-trump-judge-gonzalo-curiel/) on Tuesday, calling them “indefensible.” “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said. Read Ryan’s complete remarks from a question-and-answer session after an unrelated press conference he held in Washington, D.C.: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/"},"headline":"Read What Paul Ryan Said About Donald Trump's 'Racist Comment'","datePublished":"2016-06-07T15:24:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:22.230Z","description":"\"It's absolutely unacceptable\"","url":"https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/","keywords":["Paul Ryan","2016 Election","Donald Trump","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29fe3d2f945f5bd9/698896c6f887dcdbfee962bb/paul-ryan-judge-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29fe3d2f945f5bd9/698896c6f887dcdbfee962bb/paul-ryan-judge-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Speaker Paul Ryan And House Republicans Hold Policy Roundtable On Their Anti-Poverty Plan","caption":"Speaker Paul Ryan And House Republicans Hold Policy Roundtable On Their Anti-Poverty Plan","creditText":"Mark Wilson/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paul-ryan/","name":"Paul Ryan"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4359908/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racist/","name":"Read What Paul Ryan Said About Donald Trump's 'Racist Comment'"}}]}] ```