Ryan dismisses question about Trump-Putin meeting: ‘Dude, you know me better than that’

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) jokingly refused to comment on President Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video that became popular on social media Thursday.

“Speaker do you have any comment on the president’s meeting with Vladimir Putin?” David Nakamura, a reporter for the Washington Post, can be heard asking the Speaker in the video he shared on Thursday.

“Dude, you know me better than that,” Ryan replied. “Come on.”

Ryan is not known to take walk-and-talk interviews, though some on social media inferred the Speaker dismissed the question in efforts to avoid commenting on the controversial meeting.

I asked Paul Ryan in Wisc. about Trump’s meeting with Putin. “Dude, you know me better than that,” he replied. pic.twitter.com/KzagQeBTlp

— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) June 28, 2018

The encounter comes hours after the White House confirmed the high-stakes meeting between the two leaders amid heightened tensions between their respective countries. 

{mosads}The meeting is scheduled to take place near the end of the president’s scheduled trip to Europe next month. 

Trump has long sought to form a closer relationship with Putin in an effort to resolve longstanding problems between both leaders’ countries. Tensions include the U.S. intelligence community accusing Russia of attempted election interference and Russia’s involvement in Syria and Ukraine.

In the past, the Speaker has criticized Putin as an “aggressor” to the United States.