Mere hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan told his rank and file members that they should do what they have to to save themselves from Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee fired back.
Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2016
Trump’s campaign quickly rushed in to back their nominee up.
Re: today’s Congressional call:
Nothing’s changed. Mr. Trump’s campaign has always been powered by a grassroots movement, not Washington.
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 10, 2016
I can’t keep my phone charged due to the mass volume of texts from people all over the country who will #VoteTrump but⬇️ballot not so much.
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) October 10, 2016
It was clear. Trump’s campaign was on its own as congressional Republicans just tried to stem the bleeding.
Ryan explicitly said during a call with members Monday that he was not unendorsing Trump; however, he also said he was not going to be campaigning with the nominee. Instead, he was going to invest his resources in ensuring the Republicans kept control of the House of Representatives.
Ryan spoke on the call with members after a tape from 2005 surfaced Friday recording Trump talking about grabbing women’s genitals. Ryan subsequently uninvited Trump to appear with him at a rally Saturday in Wisconsin, but Ryan said little about the tape aside from admonishing Trump for it.
Monday was the first time Ryan spoke about the state of his endorsement. While Ryan has said that he isn’t taking his endorsement away at the moment, the Republican conference is divided over how Ryan has handled Trump’s tape. During the call Monday morning, one Republican congressman who spoke to TPM on background said that some members were criticizing Ryan openly for not standing by Trump.
One member, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) blasted Ryan for essentially ceding the election to Hillary Clinton.
