Donald Trump finally endorsed Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan Friday evening – ending the standoff between the Republican presidential nominee and House Speaker.
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“I need a Republican Senate and a House to accomplish all of the changes that we have to make”, Mr Trump said during a rally in Green Bay, in northern Wisconsin, Mr Ryan’s home state. The fact that a Republican presidential nominee’s endorsement of one of the leaders of his own party is news reflects the turmoil within the GOP. Trump shocked Republican leaders yet again this week when he refused to declare support for Ryan, instead stating that “I’m just not there yet”. “We don’t need a weak person”. “I understand and embrace the wisdom of Ronald Reagan’s big tent within the party”, Mr. Trump said.
“As Donald Trump has said stupid things and been rude to so many people over the past year, I usually chalked it up to inexperience and the spotlight of an incredibly hostile press”, Vos wrote.
Trump told the Post that Ryan had sought his endorsement in his Wisconsin primary, but that he was still “giving it very serious consideration”.
Trump’s phrasing echoed statements Ryan had made in May, when the Speaker said of endorsing Trump, “I’m just not ready to do that at this point”.
Donald Trump has formally endorsed Sen. “Kelly Ayotte. Working hand in hand, we will grow our majority in the House and in the Senate”.
“Heck if I know …” John McCain, and refocus his attacks on Hillary Clinton.
There was concern among party officials that Trump had widened the rift between his campaign and the Republican agenda with his penchant for going off-message and the highly publicized feud with the parents of slain Army Capt. Humayun Khan. Trump also raised some eyebrows on Monday when he applauded Ryan’s primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, a Trump supporter who openly questioned why there are Muslims in the US.
“I may have short circuited and for that I will try to clarify”, Clinton said, though still insisting she “never sent or received anything that was marked classified”.
“This campaign is not about me or any one candidate”. If I endorse him, I’ll get credit for being a team player at a moment when the party is struggling to unify and I’ll get to say, implausibly or not, that it was my endorsement that contributed to Ryan’s huge win after it happens. He told the crowd, “if Hillary Clinton becomes president, you will have terrorism”.
Pence was chosen partially to help calm nervous Republicans still on the fence about Trump and to bring some establishment sensibility to the ticket.
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Although Trump essentially clinched the nomination in early May when rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz dropped out of the running for the GOP’s presidential nomination, Ryan waited until June to offer his endorsement of Trump.
