While he remains Convention chairman, Ryan said, “It is not my job to tell delegates to do, what not to do, or to weigh in on things like that. Of course I wouldn’t do that”.
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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says that the “voters” picked Donald Trump to be their nominee, adding, “That’s not something I can control”.
The goal is passing a rule at the Republican National Convention in July that would free delegates to vote their “conscience”, negating any binding put in place by states’ primaries. After some direct conversations with Trump and assurances that he would support a conservative agenda, Ryan officially backed Trump earlier this month. But they have told Republican leaders privately that they’re withdrawing their support because of Trump and his comments on “women, immigrants and minorities”.
Of his own endorsement, Ryan said: “I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the Speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party”.
Numerous Republican officials have voiced tepid support for his candidacy or rejected it outright, including the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who has been outspoken in his opposition to Trump’s nomination.
In an interview with NBC News, Unruh acknowledged that they hadn’t tapped any candidate, but said the effort would continue in hopes so a candidate could eventually emerge. An excerpt was released Friday. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a vocal Trump supporter, expressed more optimism than some of his colleagues, predicting the party eventually will gather together in unity. “The party is actually liking me”.
“I don’t know what that line is”, Ryan admitted. I think they should go about their work. Trump could say something between them that gets those sponsors to pull out as well. “I’m the messenger.” he said.
Trump continued Sunday to tell Ryan and other nominal allies to stop such criticism.
He and other congressional leaders “represent a separate but equal branch of government”, Ryan said as he vowed to “robustly defend the separation of powers”. Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan also said he will not vote for the billionaire presidential candidate.
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There’s no shortage of reasons for skepticism, not the least of which is the arithmetic: the Washington Post’s report said “at least 30 delegates” are involved in the effort. “I worry about what I can do to help make this a better country, to help improve things, to help make this campaign one more about substance, and ideas”. Some delegates are withdrawing support from Trump and major corporations have made a decision to bow out in their sponsorship or offer less to the convention this year. I thought they already tried that.
