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.
I think that’s Trump being Presidential. Twitter is how he will communicate with Congress. Good advice, relatively speaking.
Dear Speaker Ryan - your courage is amazing. You encourage your colleagues to abandon him but won’t recall your endorsement. Such a weasel. Thank you for providing this for future campaign ads.
Gonna need the extra large popcorn for this one.
With the free refills.
Assuming Trump loses, who picks up the mantle of Trumpism in 2020? I’m going to assume that Trump won’t be up for the fight again, so who do the deplorables turn to? These people aren’t going away–any thoughts? Bannon? Drudge? Bachmann? One of the nutjobs in the house?
Either you’re in or your out. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not. There’s just no way to cut that baby in half.
Ryan in trying to have it both ways looks ridiculous. And his Hamlet act is getting old. Everyone has a flaw…this is Ryan’s…his fake earnestness. He’s just so greedy in wanting to use Trump to advance his policies (which I suspect wouldn’t work anyway).
By triangulating, he’s annoyed the Republican base and certainly has no support from Dems. So that leaves him with the establishment Republicans…who’ve been pretty impotent thus far.