House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday morning that he has already cast his vote for Donald Trump, pushing back on talk that he was not going to vote for the GOP nominee.
“I stand where I’ve stood all fall and all summer,” Ryan said on Fox News. “In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our nominee last week in early voting. We need to support our entire Republican ticket.”
“I am supporting our entire Republican ticket. I have been all along,” Ryan added. “My focus right now is saving our House majority. I’m going to Indiana, Michigan, New York and Virginia today to fight for House Republicans to make sure we keep this majority, but we’ve got to win the tables.”
But Ryan seemed to make a point of not saying Trump’s name, and said he does not plan to attend Donald Trump’s planned Tuesday night rally in Eau Claire, Wis., where Trump is set to be joined by Gov. Scott Walker. He cited his pre-planned schedule to campaign for House Republicans as the reason, noting once again that he has four planned stops on Tuesday.
“No, I actually just heard about it ten minutes ago. I didn’t even know that,” Ryan said. “I’m just criss-crossing the country right now fighting for congressional Republicans, which is my primary responsibility.”
“My job is to make sure Nancy Pelosi does not return as speaker of the House, and it’s also to help all Republicans, make sue they go vote, turnout, and that helps every Republican up and down the ticket,” he added.
Ryan and Trump have and a contentious relationship since Trump became the party’s nominee. In early October, Ryan disinvited Trump from appearing with him at a campaign event in Wisconsin following the release of a video showing Trump making lewd remarks about women, and told the House Republican Conference that he does not plan to campaign with or defend Trump.
The Wisconsin Republican also touched on the news that the FBI is re-examining the investigation into her emails after new emails were found in a separate investigation into Anthony Weiner, and warned voters that there will be more of the same if she wins in November.
“For those of us who lived through the 1990s, it’s sort of a feeling of deja vu,” Ryan said. “The point I keep trying to make to younger voters who did not live through the 1990s — this is what life with the Clintons looks like. It’s always a scandal, one after another. Then there’s an investigation, and what happens… is you never know what’s coming next. They live beyond the rules, and they live to work the system to help themselves, to help Clinton Inc. They can win and she could come in with a Democrat Congress, the worst of all possible things, if Republicans do not turn out and do not vote.”
