While many prominent Republicans have either only given half-hearted endorsements of Trump, or no support at all, few Republican groups have given as strong of a condemnation of Trump.
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And while Trump reiterated his call to change a “rigged political system” that works only for political insiders, he made a pragmatic recognition that Republican cooperation in Washington is vital. We need very, very strong leadership.
Nehlen insisted it wasn’t awkward to stand in a sea of people cheering and applauding as Trump announced his endorsement of the House speaker.
Trump triggered a furor 72 hours earlier when he told The Washington Post he was “not quite” ready to endorse Ryan in his upcoming primary, an extraordinary rebuke to the party’s top elected official.
“I like Paul, but these are awful times for our country”, Trump said Tuesday of Ryan, who faces a challenge by a conservative insurgent in the August 9 Wisconsin primary. And I’m just not quite there yet. “In stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s leadership on the issue of trade, Speaker Ryan will never abandon his globalist dedication to open borders, to bringing an endless stream of low-paid labor into the USA, to selling-out the American worker, and to shipping Wisconsin’s factories to Asia with job-killing TPP”, he said. “I’m not quite there yet”, Trump said in the Post interview.
Ryan was asked by host Charlie Sykes on WTMJ whether there’s anything that would lead to Ryan “cancelling” that check.
Trump declined to endorse Ryan on Tuesday despite his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, throwing his weight behind the Wisconsin congressman earlier in the day. But Trump’s newest attempt at renewed GOP unity on Friday is unlikely to calm vulnerable Republican incumbents up for reelection this year.
“I’m not going to get into any hypotheticals”, he said.
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Ryan had dismissed the importance of a Trump endorsement Friday morning in another local radio interview with WISN’s Jay Weber. “So you know I’m just going to rise above this stuff, and I’m not going to get involved in some sort of petty back and forth, I see no objective in doing that”.
