Paul Ryan did not mince words about Donald Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel. He said that Trump’s remarks were the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” At no point has Ryan walked those remarks back or suggested that they were wrong in any way.

Given that, this is pretty much the worst thing Paul Ryan has ever done:

(CNN)House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated his support Wednesday for Donald Trump at a closed door meeting with House Republicans and asked his colleagues to unite behind the presumptive Republican nominee, according to several members who attended the session.

Ryan’s backing of Trump comes a day after he blasted the businessman’s remarks about a federal judge as a “textbook definition of a racist comment.”

This is exactly how everyone in the media is reporting this. And why shouldn’t they? Paul Ryan said just days ago that Trump is a racist. Now he is telling House GOP members to vote for him and support him anyway. There’s no plainer way to say that racism really doesn’t matter to Ryan and that he thinks it shouldn’t matter to Republicans.

Which is pretty much the craziest suggestion anyone who professes to belong to the Party of Lincoln should ever make.

Look, if this was the direction he was going to go, then he should have defended Trump’s comments, or at least said they weren’t racist. Having said that, he cannot go out there and harangue elected Republicans to support Trump anyway. Jeez Louise, why is this so hard?