Paul Ryan to GOP: Forget Trump, save yourselves

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told the House Republican conference today he will no longer defend GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump or campaign for him ahead of next month’s election.

Ryan’s comments came during a morning conference call and shook the campaign a day after Trump’s Sunday debate performance seemed to stem his bleeding support.

The House speaker stopped short of saying he wouldn’t vote for Trump, but that was about the only good news for the Republican presidential nominee, who has vowed to stay in the race even after a recording surfaced showing him boasting about sexual assault in 2005.

Ryan essentially conceded Trump will lose the election and said he is focused on maintaining the Republican congressional majority. He instructed lawmakers to do whatever they need to do to save themselves.

“You all need to do what’s best for you in your district,” Ryan reportedly said.

While some endangered lawmakers had already distanced themselves from Trump, Ryan’s declaration is a stark departure from the party’s overall approach. Recent internal Republican polling continued to show the down-ballot “Trump effect” many feared had not materialized, but Ryan showed no appetite for waiting on a collapse.

Trump brushed off Ryan’s criticism.

The nominee tweeted Monday afternoon, shortly before a campaign stop in Ambridge, Pa.:

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

Ryan, the party’s highest-ranking elected official, has always had a tenuous relationship with the bombastic billionaire but issued a tepid endorsement of Trump in June. The two planned to make their first campaign appearance together Saturday, but those plans were scuttled late Friday when The Washington Post published a story on Trump’s lewd remarks from 11 years ago.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers and officials rescinded their support for Trump over the weekend, saying they would not vote for him and calling on him to step out of the race. Among the defections, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, was the biggest.

“I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set,” McCain said in a statement. “But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”

McCain said he now plans to write in the name of another Republican when he goes to the polls in November.

During Ryan’s Monday conference call, several GOP members strongly rebuked the speaker for his new approach and argued Republicans should be resolute in their public support. One of those members, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., released a statement noting Trump’s apology and significant life changes (including party affiliation) over the last decade.

“I am convinced Mrs. Clinton will continue to focus all of her efforts to highlight past comments by Mr. Trump to obscure her horrendous, left-wing record of corruption and deception and to avoid the critical issues facing this nation at all costs,” Franks said. “Mr. Trump’s comments pale in comparison to the death and suffering Mrs. Clinton’s actual policies and actions have brought to innocent victims in America and across the world.”

Franks said he remains “steadfastly committed” to electing Trump, because “the survival of this Republic as we know it depends” on it.