Speaker Paul Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Republican, told CNN that he was “not ready” to endorse Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Said Ryan: “I think conservatives want to know: Does he share our values and our principles? There’s a lot of questions conservatives are going to want answers to.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan “doesn’t want to be the Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, but his high-profile presence and behind-the-scenes work raising money for the GOP could position him to seize the spotlight four years from now,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Mr. Ryan raised $17.2 million in the first three months of 2016, outpacing his predecessor as speaker, John Boehner, as GOP fundraiser-in-chief… More than $11 million of the money Mr. Ryan raised from January through March went to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm, surpassing the $7 million record set by Mr. Boehner in the second quarter of 2012.”

Politico: “Paul Ryan’s massive $17 million fundraising haul this quarter was fueled by some of the nation’s richest people and large corporate political action committees, which cut five- and six-figure checks to the speaker’s burgeoning political operation.”

Rick Klein: “One does not have to question Paul Ryan’s sincerity to question his ultimate veracity. The House speaker’s extraordinary news conference, held to reiterate his position that does not want and will not accept the Republican presidential nomination, will hush the Ryan buzz and mute some – though surely not all – of Donald Trump’s grievances against the RNC. But the fact is that if the convention heads where it looks like it might, not even Ryan can control where it goes. And if it comes for him, can he really balance the honest-broker chairman role at the convention with that of an organically drafted candidate?”

“There’s a plausible scenario where neither Trump nor Ted Cruz demonstrates an ability to lock down 1,237 delegate votes after two, three, four ballots. The what? ‘Count me out,’ is what Ryan said Tuesday. What happens when the GOP needs to deal someone new in, though?”

For members: Here’s What Paul Ryan Was Really Saying

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) will definitively rule himself out as a contender to be the GOP presidential nominee in a formal statement this afternoon, The Hill reports.

Said an aide: “He’s going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all.”

Politico: “The backdrop of all his denials is the political reality that Ryan would likely lose. Most public polling has him faring relatively poorly in a potential matchup with Clinton. … Ryan would be forced to launch and run a presidential campaign in three months. His experience from 2012 would help, but even the most talented campaigner would be at a disadvantage on such a compressed timetable.”

New York Times: “While Mr. Ryan has repeatedly said that he has no intention of becoming his party’s nominee this year, he is already deep into his own parallel national operation to counter Donald J. Trump and help House and Senate candidates navigate the political headwinds that Mr. Trump would generate as the party’s standard-bearer — or, for that matter, Senator Ted Cruz, who is only slightly more popular.”

“Mr. Ryan is creating a personality and policy alternative to run alongside the presidential effort — one that provides a foundation to rebuild if Republicans splinter and lose in the fall.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) released a video “promoting his unity strategy for the House GOP. But the clip, which shows Ryan giving a speech to a rapt audience, plays like a campaign ad,” Time reports.

“Ryan has repeatedly dismissed the idea that he will enter the Republican presidential race… There are, however, countless theories about what could happen should a contested convention take place and this quasi-campaign video from Ryan will only add fuel to the fire.”

Jonathan Chait: “If Paul Ryan does not want the Republican nomination, he will make what we call a ‘Shermanesque statement.’ Despite numerous opportunities, he has failed to do so. The most plausible explanation for this is that Ryan does, in fact, covet the nomination.”

“Sometimes politicians have reasons to stoke presidential speculation without having an intention to run. Maybe they’re gauging potential interest, or maybe they’re looking to attract media attention to elevate their profile. Ryan has no such motivation. If he wanted to rule out getting the nomination at the convention, he could simply state he wouldn’t accept it. He hasn’t.”

“I think you need to run for president in order to be president. I’m not running for president, so, period. End of story.”

— Speaker Paul Ryan, quoted by the Times of Israel.

Mike Allen: “On the eve of the Wisconsin primaries, top Republicans are becoming increasingly vocal about their long-held belief that Speaker Paul Ryan will wind up as the nominee, perhaps on the fourth ballot at a chaotic Cleveland convention. One of the nation’s best-wired Republicans, with an enviable prediction record for this cycle, sees a 60% chance of a convention deadlock, and a 90% chance that delegates turn to Ryan – ergo, a 54% chance that Ryan, who’ll start the third week of July as chairman of the Republican National Convention, will end it as the nominee.”

“Ryan, who’s more calculating and ambitious than he lets on, is running the same playbook he did to become Speaker: saying he doesn’t want it, that it won’t happen. In both cases, the maximum leverage is to NOT WANT IT – and to be begged to do it. He and his staff are trying to be as Shermanesque as it gets.”

For members: If Trump Collapses at Convention So Does Cruz