Ryan says Mueller shouldn't be fired by Trump, defends his legacy on 'Meet the Press'

Outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan endorsed a successor for the job and again said special counsel Robert S. Mueller III should not be fired by President Trump in an interview on "Meet the Press" Sunday.

The Wisconsin Republican, who announced last week that he will not run for re-election, also defended his legacy in the interview and said he had no plans to run for office down the road but wouldn't completely rule it out. 

“You never say never I suppose, but I have no plans to do anything,” he said.

Looking relaxed and repeating that his decision was centered on his desire to spend more time with his wife and teenagers, Ryan said he would stay involved in issues important to him such as entitlement reform, taxes and the military. 

“There are a lot of issues I can be involved with. I’ll find ways of doing that,” Ryan said. "I'm not going away."

Ryan reiterated his opinion that Trump should not fire Mueller, whose probe into possible collusion with the Russians before the 2016 election among other issues ramped up last week with a raid on the office of Trump's personal lawyer.

Ryan said Mueller should be allowed to finish his investigation and he doesn't think Trump will fire him. But he also doesn't endorse legislation to protect the special counsel from being dismissed

"I think he should be left to do his job," he said. "We have a rule-of-law system. No one is above that rule-of-law system. I don’t think he’s going to be fired. I don’t think he should be fired."

Ryan sidestepped commenting on former FBI director James Comey's scathing comments about Trump in a new book. In response, the president called Comey, whom he fired, a "slimeball." 

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Ryan said he doesn't know Comey well and said he was not going to join "some book-selling food fight. I don't see any value in that."

Ryan said he will finish his term as speaker and he endorsed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to succeed him.

"We all believe Kevin is the right person," he said, referring to the Republican leadership team.