Paul Ryan to Address Republican National Convention

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin will offer a 10-minute address at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next week, becoming the newest high-profile name added to the roster of speakers often at odds with the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

"I want to talk about our ideas, our solutions and how our party should unite…Our agenda, our solutions and how we ought to unite around our common principles and how we apply those principles to problems," Ryan told Politico.

Ryan tacitly acknowledged the division between Trump and the mainstream of the Republican party — or at least the version of the party Ryan would like to see — saying he would tout the party's adopted agenda in his speech as a way to unify the GOP ahead of tough 2016 races.

"I really think the way we unite ourselves is we talk about our common principles, and we show how we’re applying them to problems and offering better ideas," Ryan said in the interview. "And that should unite around these ideas and this agenda. And winning an election means you can put that agenda in place."

An aide to Ryan said the House speaker will focus on the House Republican agenda and "the sharp contrast between Republican ideas and four more years of Obama-like progressive policies; and the need for conservatives to unite around Republican candidates in advance of a critical election."

However, Ryan seemed to signal that he will discuss unity in a larger sense outside of the Republican party.

"Our party has moved right, their party has moved really left. I think the common ground, say that you had in the early ’90s when I was here as a staffer, is nothing like the common ground you have right now," he said.

Last month, Ryan put to rest concerns as to whether he would support Trump by finally endorsing him.

"It’s no secret that he and I have our differences," Ryan wrote in a column originally published by The Gazette in Janesville, Wisconsin. "I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement."

However, since the endorsement, Ryan has objected to a number of things Trump has said or done, including a disagreement over immigration in which Trump called for a ban on immigration from countries with a history of terrorism and what the senator called "the definition of racism" when Trump criticized a Mexican judge as unfit to hear a case against him.

Ryan also criticized Trump earlier this month for sending a tweet that featured Clinton and what appeared to be a Star of David layered on top of $100 bills – an image that had previously appeared on a white supremacist website. Ryan responded by saying anti-Semitic images have "no place in presidential campaign," and that Trump's staff has got to "clean things up."

Ryan's speech — which he said he is writing himself — came about after several days of discussions with the Trump campaign and the RNC, with a final agreement following Trump's trip to Washington last week.

However, no amount of discussions will convince some party leaders to attend the Cleveland convention.

When Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who was personally attacked by Trump during a meeting with senators last week, was asked about his attendance at the RNC, he said he had some very important house chores to tend to: "No, I’ve got to mow my lawn."

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska will skip because he is planning to "take his kids to watch some dumpster fires across the state," according to the senator's spokesman.

Some senators have proven to be more forgiving of Trump, including former 2016 rival Ted Cruz, who will not only attend, but also deliver a major speech at the convention.

"We had a positive and productive meeting this morning with Donald Trump. Donald asked me to speak at the Republican convention, and I told him I'd be happy to do so," Cruz told reporters following his meeting with Trump last week in Washington.

The agreement is much calmer than the primary days in which Trump, among other things, accused Cruz's father of being involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Cruz served up bitter words, as well, calling the New York businessman a "serial philanderer," a "pathological liar" and a "narcissist."

[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons]