Heading into Monday, there was speculation that Speaker Paul Ryan would rescing his endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after the emergence of the Trump Tapes, following an exodus of his lawmaker peers doing the same over the weekend. The Speaker had a conference call scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday with House Republican, to assess Donald Trump’s debate performance and advise rank-and-file Republicans on how to deal with fallout from leaked audio.
As of last night, no decision had been made, but as Politico adds, “that the speaker of the House has even mulled abandoning his own party’s presidential nominee is illustrative of the extraordinarily bizarre political climate in the Republican Party. “I think they all face the same dilemma to varying degrees,” a senior House Republican leadership aide said, echoing the sentiment of multiple high-level aides and lawmakers interviewed by POLITICO. “How to express displeasure in a meaningful way… How best to help members in tough races… How to try to rebuild the party post the anticipated apocalypse. I think they are all having individual and group discussions wrestling with this.”
And while it remains unclear what has been decided, moments ago, Politico’s Jake Sherman tweeted that while there was no formal decision, Paul Ryan announced that he won’t defend Trump and “will focus the next 28 days on keeping the House majority”
BREAKING– @SpeakerRyan tells house republicans he won’t defend trump and will focus the next 29 days on keeping the house majority.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 10, 2016
PAUL RYAN just told House Republicans that if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, Republicans can’t let her have a blank check in congress
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 10, 2016
Put this all together– Ryan is basically done with trump. Wants to keep the house.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 10, 2016
Wow, wow. From source on House GOP conference call, Ryan said: “you all need to do what’s best for you in your district” — > http://pic.twitter.com/Dw8hn7RUOK
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) October 10, 2016
Which is as close to Ryan abandoning Trump as the House speaker could have gone without officially withdrawing his support, and leading to even greater chaos for the republican party.
via http://ift.tt/2dGbDt4 Tyler Durden