Paul Ryan abruptly cut off an interview with a local reporter in Michigan after he said the reporter tried to “stuff” words into his mouth.
The Republican vice-presidential nominee was doing a one-on-one interview with Terry Camp of ABC affiliate WJRT in Flint, Mich. Camp asked, “Does the country have a gun problem?”
Ryan responded, “The country has a crime problem.”
“Not a gun problem?” Camp asked.
"No, if you take a look at the gun laws we have, I don't even think President Obama is proposing more gun laws. We have good, strong gun laws. We have to make sure we enforce our laws,” Ryan said, according to a transcript posted on
Real Clear Politics.
The Wisconsin congressman went on to talk about ways to reduce crime by ending the poverty in inner cities.
Watch the interview here.
“And you can do all that by cutting taxes? With a big tax cut?” Camp interjected.
“Those are your words, not mine,” Ryan said.
A Ryan spokesman cut in then, saying, “Thank you very much, sir,” to bring the interview to a close. But the exchange continued.
“That was kind of strange, you’re trying to stuff words in people’s mouths,” Ryan said.
“Well, I don’t know if it’s strange,” Camp responded.
“Sounds like you're trying to put answers to questions," Ryan said.
Campaign spokesman Brendan Buck called it a “strange situation.”
"The reporter knew he was already well over the allotted time for the interview when he decided to ask a weird question relating gun violence to tax cuts," Buck said in a statement to
Fox News. "Ryan responded as anyone would in such a strange situation. When you do nearly 200 interviews in a couple months, eventually you're going to see a local reporter embarrass himself."
In his own report, Camp said he had tried to ask Ryan about guns and violence. “This did not end well,” he said.
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