WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling for a loftier and more hopeful politics amid an ugly and chaotic presidential campaign.

The Wisconsin Republican tells an audience on Capitol Hill that it’s “easy to get disheartened” about the state of politics.

But he says: “It did not used to be this bad, and it does not have to be this way.”

Ryan has stayed neutral during the Republican presidential race. He has tried to avoid commenting on Donald Trump’s candidacy, while saying he intends to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Ryan was speaking Wednesday to an invited audience of congressional interns in the lofty hearing room of the Ways and Means Committee, which he previously chaired.