Breitbart posts audio of Paul Ryan on pre-election call: ‘I am not
going to defend Donald Trump – not now, not in the future’
Dylan Stableford
House Speaker Paul Ryan has been defending Donald Trump ever since
his formal endorsement of him two
days before the November 2016 presidential election.
But in a conference call in early October, Ryan told fellow House
Republicans he would not “defend Donald Trump — not now, not in the
future,” according to an audio
recording published by Breitbart News on Monday.
Ryan’s abandonment of Trump, which came in response to the
publication of Trump’s lewd remarks about women on the infamous “Access
Hollywood” tape, had been reported at the
time.
“The world is well aware of this history,” Brendan Buck, a
spokesman for the House speaker, said Tuesday in a statement to Yahoo News.
“And obviously a lot has happened since then.”
Buck added: “As everyone knows, they came together toward the end
of the campaign and the speaker vocally supported him.”
But the publication
of the news by Breitbart, a far-right, pro-Trump website that was formerly led
by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, puts Ryan’s sometimes difficult
relationship with the president into stark relief.
“His comments are not anywhere in keeping with our party’s
principles and values,” Ryan said during the Oct. 10 call. “There are basically
two things that I want to make really clear, as for myself as your speaker. I
am not going to defend Donald Trump — not now, not in the
future.”
The same day, Trump responded to reports about Ryan’s comments.
“Paul Ryan should
spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not
waste his time on fighting Republican nominee,” Trump tweeted.
The remarks followed
months of Ryan trying to determine his exact public relationship with his
party’s nominee. In June, shortly after Ryan
endorsed Trump, he condemned the mogul’s comments about a
Mexican-American judge, calling them racist.
The “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump was recorded years ago boasting
about groping and forcibly kissing women, resulted in Ryan distancing himself
somewhat from Trump just weeks from Election Day.
Ryan disinvited Trump to a GOP
event in his home district in October, and pledged not to campaign
on his behalf. In the leaked audio, he urged GOP members to “do what you think
is best and do what you feel you need to do.”
“I’m not going to be
campaigning with [Trump],” Ryan said, adding: “I’m going to spend the next 28
days working hard with all of our members to get reelected because we need a
check on Hillary Clinton if she wins the presidency.”
This week, Ryan has been out selling the House GOP replacement for
Obamacare, a key part of Trump’s agenda.
And Breitbart has taken the opportunity to blame the House speaker
for what some Republicans see as the bill’s shortcomings.
“[Ryan] has pushed now President Donald Trump to believe his
healthcare legislation the American Health Care Act would repeal and replace
Obamacare when it does not repeal Obamacare,” Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle wrote.
“Ryan has also, according to Trump ally Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), misled President
Trump into believing that Ryan’s bill can pass Congress. Paul and others
believe the bill is dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate since a number of GOP
senators have come out against it, and there are serious questions about
whether it can pass the House.”
Breitbart has a history of torching Ryan and accusing him of being
insufficiently conservative.
“This is the first
major initiative that Trump has worked on with Ryan,” Boyle continued. “And the
fact it is going so poorly calls into question whether Speaker Ryan, the GOP’s
failed 2012 vice presidential nominee who barely supported Trump at all in
2016, really understands how Trump won and how to win in general.”
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