On Oct. 21, the Washington Free Beacon’s Lachlan Markay asked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), then just a possible candidate for House speaker, if he would support an immigration reform bill. Ryan, promised spokesman Brendan Buck, understood “that we can’t address that issue with a president we can’t trust.”

Two days later, it was up to Breitbart News reporter Julia Hahn to break the news. “Sources on Capitol Hill also tell Breitbart News that Ryan, as Speaker, would time the movement of amnesty legislation to ensure its passage,” Han reported. “As a result, he would not bring it up while Obama is in the White House, but instead wait until 2017 — ideally with a ‘President Rubio’ in the White House.”

That was ominous — ominous enough for National Review’s Elaina Plott to break the news again Tuesday. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), an implacable foe of immigration reform, had asked Ryan to put his promises to conservatives on the record. He did so. “I have long and publicly been opposed to the gang of eight bill, and there will be no comprehensive immigration reform under this president,” Ryan told Plott. (A bipartisan “Gang of Eight” shepherded an immigration bill through the Senate in 2013, but it died in the House.)