House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) delivered a repudiation Wednesday to the “disheartened” state of American politics, blasting the “identity politics” on display in the increasingly toxic Republican presidential primary, the Washington Post reports.
Said Ryan: “Looking around at what’s taking place in politics today, it is easy to get disheartened. How many of you find yourself shaking your head at what you see from both sides of the aisle these days?”
He added: “It did not used to be this bad.”

