“Neither of them are going to engage in ad hominem attacks on any of the respective Republican candidates, but they will speak up when they think any Republican principles are being violated,” said Josh Holmes, a top McConnell confidant. “And both feel an obligation, in a circumstance like this, to speak very clearly on what the Republican Party is about.”…

This is also about political survival. The two men are trying to protect their majorities on Capitol Hill.

“I think he’s being very measured and appropriate,” Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said of Ryan. “What you don’t want to do is end up in a back-and-forth on every single thing somebody says. Whether it’s a candidate for president, [or] your opponent. … [But] there are some things that occur in campaigns that are so egregious, it’s important for a leader to say something. And I think that was one of these situations.”

Walden added that it’s not Ryan’s job to go further. “His responsibility is to put out a positive agenda here that we can work on here when we’re here [and] campaign on when we’re at home and provide his perspective on things.”