House Speaker Paul Ryan is ending his delicate dance around his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, writing in an op-ed that he will vote for Donald Trump this fall.
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Hillary Clinton will unleash a major foreign policy attack on Donald Trump Thursday, using a speech in San Diego to cast the Republican as unqualified and risky. I won’t pretend otherwise.
Read Ryan’s piece in full here. And I don’t know what the two have discussed in private – or what, if any, assurances Trump may have given Ryan.
The announcement largely focuses on the Republican House agenda, which Ryan says has no chance of passing if Hillary Clinton is elected to office.
Congressman Chris Collins of NY says in a statement that Ryan’s endorsement “reinforces the fact that Republicans are united in our fight to defeat Hillary Clinton”. It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America.
However, Ryan also acknowledged his disagreements with Trump in the column.
Back in early May, Ryan became perhaps the highest profile Trump resister who’s now holding elected office when he went on CNN to proclaim that he wasn’t “ready” to endorse Trump. Ryan strongly believes that Trump could be key to making the House’s proposals a reality – something he doesn’t believe would be possible with Hillary Clinton.
“It was basically getting a comfort level of our idea about where the country is headed and where it ought to go”, Ryan told AP.
He says he made a decision to endorse Trump early in the week after a series of three or four private conversations and ongoing communication between their staff.
With his support, Ryan became the last senior Republican congressional leader to throw his weight behind Trump’s candidacy. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.
The Wisconsin Republican has voiced reservations over Trump’s tone throughout the campaign and disagrees with him on many policy areas.
Putting his party’s legislative agenda at the forefront, Ryan is willing to set aside his other differences with Trump.
On Thursday, the speaker penned a guest column for his hometown newspaper in which he trumpeted the controversial real-estate mogul as someone who could support the speaker’s conservative agenda.
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“As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall”, Ryan wrote on Thursday.
