House Speaker Paul Ryan said there is no friction between him and President Donald Trump over the latter's desire to redefine birthright citizenship in the Constitution.
Roughly one week after Ryan said Trump's plan to sign an executive order that would get rid of birthright citizenship isn't possible, which was followed by Trump's criticism of the speaker himself, Ryan told Fox News' "Special Report" the relationship between the pair is strong.
"It's all good," Ryan said. "Like I said, he and I have a very long, very, very good relationship. We talked that day, later on. I was commenting on the means, not the merits. I think we should review this. Especially for illegals. People getting a tourist visa, coming over just to have a kid, that's something we should look at because this is the 21st century, not the 18th century when that was written.
"But what I was commenting on were the constitutional means of achieving something like that. I think it's either a constitutional amendment or a statutory change that would be required, not an executive order."
Ryan added that using an executive order to get rid of the birthright citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment would be too easily challenged in court — and he is not even convinced this type of legislation could even make the change.
"I was basically talking about a constitutional process, the legal process on achieving something," Ryan told host Bret Baier. "But should we look at whether or not in the 21st century someone coming over with a tourist visa just for the sake of having a baby here to then get citizenship, yeah, I think that's something that should be reviewed."
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