Haley, Ryan offer new GOP response to Trump

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Two fresh faces in the Republican Party – House Speaker Paul Ryan and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – are offering messages of diversity and openness to immigrants that could answer the GOP establishment’s increasingly desperate search for an antidote to the loud pronouncements of presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Delivering the GOP rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants, called for welcoming legal immigrants to the country as long as they’re properly vetted, and for resisting the temptation “to follow the siren call of the angriest voices.”

She acknowledged Wednesday that her comments were aimed partly at Trump, telling NBC’s “Today Show”: “Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk.”

Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican beginning his third month as speaker of the House, has been pledging to offer a bold agenda that will position the GOP as a positive alternative to Obama and the Democrats. Last weekend he helped convene an anti-poverty summit with some of the GOP presidential candidates – Trump was absent – where he pressed for “a safety net that is designed to help get people out of poverty.”

Such rhetoric from two young and charismatic officeholders cheers establishment Republicans who fear that the rise of Trump and of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – with their frequent strong words on immigrants in the country illegally – could ruin the GOP for years, eliminating any chance of winning the White House if either is the nominee and turning off swing voters, minorities and women.

Whether Haley or Ryan can do anything to sideline Trump or Cruz remains to be seen. That’s not their explicit goal, and Haley, in particular, drew a backlash from some conservatives for her State of the Union rebuttal.