Pence assured the Green Bay crowd that the Republican “movement” was now united, and defeating Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would be possible with Trump as the party’s candidate.
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The move comes just days ahead of Ryan’s Tuesday primary matchup with challenger Paul Nehlen, who has played up Trump’s refusal to back the speaker – as well as Ryan’s tepid support for Trump.
Mr Nehlen said Mr Trump’s decision “is appropriate and is a display of true leadership”. “And we may disagree on a couple of things, but mostly we agree, and we’re going to get it done and we’re going to do a lot of wonderful things”, he added.
As he falls more behind in the polls, Trump is doubling down on the fear and bogus personal attacks. “She will be so bad for our country and we can’t let it happen”, Trump said.
Mr Trump this week refused to endorse Ryan when he told The Washington Post he was “not quite there yet” – using the same phrase Mr Ryan had used about Mr Trump before finally endorsing him.
In another Friday morning interview, Ryan told WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes that “I see no goal in doing this tit-for-tat, petty back and forth with Donald Trump, because it serves no good objective in my mind”.
Trump earlier in the week had declined to endorse Ryan, as well as Sens.
Mr Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican official, faces a Tuesday primary in his home state of Wisconsin against Paul Nehlen.
On Friday, Trump also read out endorsements of senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. He said in the same interview that McCain had not done enough for veterans and criticized Ayotte for distancing herself from him during the campaign.
Ryan, like other top Wisconsin Republicans, did not attend Trump’s evening appearance in their state.
Trump’s endorsements came more than 10 minutes after he began reading his statement, cutting in several times to offer tangential remarks – from again rehashing an incident involving a crying baby at a recent rally to touting the strength of his fundraising.
“This is truly one of the most important elections in my lifetime”.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s lead over Republican rival Donald Trump narrowed to less than 3 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday, down from almost eight points on Monday.
“If Hillary Clinton becomes president”, he said at a rally in Iowa, “you will have really, in my opinion, the destruction of this country from within”.
Trump called his Democratic opponent “a risky liar”, “an unbalanced person”, “pretty close to unhinged”, “totally unfit to lead”, and lacking “the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead the country”. “She’s weak. She’s a weak person”.
And she did what she has rarely done during the presidential campaign: take questions from reporters.
The charges came soon after Clinton addressed her own political vulnerabilities while facing a group of minority journalists in Washington.
Another rally Friday night in Wisconsin, Trump alleged that Clinton is a monster.
Republicans have repeatedly charged that Clinton endangered national security with her handling of classified material.
When Trump said that he wasn’t “quite there” regarding endorsing Ryan, Zack Roday, a spokesperson for Ryan, said, “Neither Speaker Ryan nor anyone on his team has ever asked for Donald Trump’s endorsement. I like people that weren’t captured”. Trump added that “this campaign is not about me or any one candidate”.
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Ryan, for his part, has been critical of Trump’s feud with the Khans, whose Army captain son died fighting in the Iraq war in 2004.
