Trump Gears Up To Blame Election Loss On Paul Ryan, GOP Leaders

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Donald Trump on Tuesday morning continued to lash out at House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), setting himself up to blame a loss in November on a lack of support from Ryan and other members of the GOP establishment.

Following the release of a 2005 tape in which Trump can be heard making vulgar comments about women, Ryan said he would no longer campaign with Trump, but he stopped short of pulling his endorsement. And Trump has latched onto those comments, rallying his base to support him over Ryan.

In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump warned that the speaker’s lack of support could hurt the GOP nominee’s chances in November.

Trump followed up with a tweet noting reports that some Republicans were unhappy with Ryan’s attempt to distance himself slightly from Trump. The GOP nominee painted Ryan as a traitor.

About an hour later, he then criticized Republicans for not being loyal to each other.

Trump began criticizing Ryan on Monday following the speaker’s conference call with the GOP caucus. Trump published a tweet saying that Ryan “should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee.”

And during a Monday night rally, Trump lashed out at Republican leadership.

“You have people that can’t fix the budget and then they start talking about their nominee, but they can’t fix the budget,” Trump said at the rally. “Isn’t it really sad that we don’t have stronger leadership on both sides?”

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