House Speaker Paul Ryan went to the mattresses for his longtime friend, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, at a press conference on Thursday morning.

Ryan was asked by a reporter about new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci “suggesting he might have been behind some of the leaks coming out of the White House,” and specifically whether Ryan believes those were “appropriate comments” for Scaramucci.

“Well, I only heard about this—I’m not sure what the inner play is,” Ryan replied. “All I have to say is as you know Reince is a very close friend of mine. Reince is doing a fantastic job at the White House. And I believe he has the president’s confidence. So if those two gentlemen have differences, my advice would be to sit down and settle their differences.”

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“I think Reince is doing a great job as chief of staff,” Ryan said.