Paul Ryan is still hammering Trump for 'beyond the pale' jabs at a Hispanic judge but insists GOP nominee 'won fair and square' – as one report says he wants the brass ring for HIMSELF in four years

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday afternoon on MSNBC that even though Donald Trump is still rough around the edges, the GOP needs to make its peace with the idea of the billionaire as its standard bearer.

But hours later in an ABC News interview he pivoted in a more aggressive direction, calling Trump's recent comments questioning the objectivity of a Hispanic federal judge 'beyond the pale' and 'something that needed to be condemned.' 

Speaking with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, Ryan suggested that November is far enough away for Trump to overcome the unforced error. 

'Look, I think there is no justifying those comments and I was very clear about that,' Ryan said. 'And I think we all – everybody, not just Republicans – should disavow comments like that and I am glad he walked it back.'

But like it or not, Ryan hinted, the Grand old Party seems stuck with Trump.

IT'S ALL BAD: Paul Ryan told ABC News on Thursday that Donald Trump's comments about a Mexican-American judge were 'beyond the pale' and 'something that needed to be condemned'

IT's ALL GOOD: On the same afternoon, Ryan painted tensions between Trump and congressional Republcans as just part of the ordinary checks and balances of government

'He has a ways to go to give us a campaign we can all be proud of,' he said, 'but it's really clear with me we have one of two choices: Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.'

'He won the delegates. He won fair and square. He won 1,237 delegates, this what you have to do to win the nomination of our party.'

In excerpts ABC released from Ryan's sit-down with George Stephanopoulos, however, Ryan sounded like a man running out of patience.

'Suggesting that a person can't do their job because of their race or ethnicity, that's not a politically incorrect thing to do,' he said. 'That's just a wrong thing to say.'

The Daily Caller reported late Thursday that one possible reason for Ryan's noncommittal vacillation on Trump is that he himself wants to run for president in 2020. Having Trump in the White House next year would make that all but impossible.

That report was based on conversations with an unnamed longtime GOP donor who attended a New York campaign financing event with Trump earlier in the day. 

Ryan was the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee, losing the election alongside Mitt Romney.

Ryan told MSNBC that House Republicans' newly minted national security strategy will clash with some of the billionaire real estate magnate's more radioactive policies.

'We do have some difference of opinions on those things,' he said. 'That’s fine, that is the way it works between Congress and the president.'

He shied away from a confrontation on the topic of Trump's proposed wall between the U.S. and Mexico, however.

NOT POLITICALLY INCORRECT: Ryan told ABC of Trump that 'suggesting that a person can't do their job because of their race or ethnicity [is] a wrong thing to say'

POLITICALLY WORKABLE: He told MSNBC that setting walls and other details aside, 'securing our border is something that is in our national security interest'

'We can debate how best to secure the border,' said a diplomatic Ryan, 'but securing our border is something that is in our national security interest.'

'We think, yeah, we should listen to our experts on the border. There are a lot of things you need to do to actually secure the border.'

Ryan also put considerable daylight between his caucus and Trump on the question of temporarily halting non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States. Trump proposed such a measure six months ago in the wake of a terror attack in San Bernardino, California, but later said it was 'just a suggestion.'

'I don’t support that policy as well,' Ryan said. 'I don’t think we should have a religious test on anyone. I think we should have a security test on people coming to this country.'

Ryan struggled Tuesday to justify his endorsement of Trump just five days earlier, telling reporters that the Republican presidential candidate's recent criticism of a Hispanic judge 'is sort of like a textbook definition of a racist comment.'

Ryan said he would 'not attempt to try and defend the indefensible,' but insisted that sending Hillary Clinton to the White House was not 'the answer' to a growing divide between the Trump campaign and centrist lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

Ryan clobbered Trump on Tuesday over his 'racist' complaints about a Hispanic federal judge but insisted Republicans would be better off casting their lot with Trump than with Hillary Clinton

Beginning on May 27 during a speech in San Diego, California – the city where Curiel hears cases in federal court – Trump has accused the him of being incapable of judging him fairly because he is of Mexican descent and Trump plans to wall off Mexico from the U.S. if he's president. 

'I disavow these comments. I regret those comments that he made,' Ryan said Tuesday. 

'I don't think – claiming someone cannot do their job because of their race is sort of like a textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It's absolutely unacceptable.'

'But do I believe that Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not,' he added, explaining that Republicans in Congress 'have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her.'

'But I do absolutely disavow those comments. I think they're wrong, I don't think they're right-headed, and the thinking behind them is something I don't even personally relate to.' 

Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor who was among Trump's earliest high-profile endorsers, rushed to his aid shortly after Ryan made his brief comments

Ryan said he wouldn't 'defend the indefensible' but pledged to help the GOP solidify its congressional majority in spite of Trump's 'racist' comments

Asked how he could continue to support a presidential candidate whom he had just accused of racism, Ryan threaded a rhetorical needle. 

'I don't know what's in his heart,' he declared. 'But I think the comment itself is defined that way.'

'So I am not going to defend these kinds of comments, because they're indefensible. I'm going to defend our ideas. I'm going to defend our majority.'

'I see it as my job as Speaker of the House to help keep our party unified,' Ryan said, forecasting that 'if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are doomed to lose.'

Later in the day on Fox News Radio's 'Kilmeade & Friends,' Ryan told host Brian Kilmeade that he wasn't judging Trump personally – only the words he chose.

'No, I’m not,' he replied when Kilmeade asked if he was saying Trump is racist. 'I’m saying that the comment was.'

'I don’t know what’s in his heart. I can’t speak to that whatsoever. What I’m saying is to suggest that a person’s race disqualifies them to do their job is "textbook." That’s what I’m saying.'

'I’m not saying what’s in his heart because I don’t know what is in his heart and I don’t think he feels that in his heart, but I don’t think it is wise or justifiable to suggest that a person should be disqualified from their job because of their ethnicity,' Ryan said.