Paul Ryan changes his tune on 'disgraceful' Democrat deal - here's what he said

In the first interview for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) since President Trump announced his deal with Democrats to increase the debt ceiling, Ryan explained why Trump made the decision, and called it "perfectly reasonable and rational."

He made the comments on Fox News to Martha MacCallum Thursday.

"When you look at that deal that was struck in the room for the three month debt ceiling," MacCallum asked, "some are sizing it up and saying that the president really was speaking to Republican leadership, he was saying, that it was a signal to you guys, what do you say to that?"

"Well look what I think what he's trying to do is clear the decks so we can get focused on big things like tax reform," Ryan answered.

"I've spoken to the president a lot about this," he explained, "I talked to him this morning, he wants to clear the decks so we can basically get our job done and focus on our big issue like tax reform, border security and the rest."

"Second point is we're getting hit with two hurricanes," he continued, "we're still dealing with Harvey in Texas and Louisiana, we're just now getting hit with Irma, and he wanted to make this a bipartisan moment, where we weren't fighting each other up in Washington about hurricane aid.

.@SpeakerRyan on @POTUS-Dem deal: "It's perfectly reasonable & rational why he's doing what he's doing." #TheStory https://t.co/j74uUxlwd1 pic.twitter.com/kwSoVBGxMq

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 7, 2017

"He just wanted to get it done, get it out of the way," Ryan added, "so that aid is flowing to the states that need it right now so that we can go and then focus on things like tax reform."

"So it's perfectly reasonable and rational why he's doing what he's doing," he concluded.

On Wednesday, just hours before Trump announced that he would back the deal, Ryan called it "disgraceful" and "ridiculous."

In the MacCallum interview, Ryan also defended the Republicans in Congress by saying, "The House has been more productive than any Congress in the modern era." Ryan and other members of Congress have been excoriated by many for failing to support Trump's agenda with enough legislative victories.