After spending most of the campaign distancing himself from Donald Trump, his party’s presidential nominee, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., urged people to back Republicans up and down the ballot in an opinion column for CNN Saturday.
“[V]ote Republican — Donald Trump, our Senate candidates and our House candidates — so we can start turning things around. If Republicans do not turn out — if we sit this one out — we will open the door not just to [Democratic presidential candidate] Hillary Clinton but also a Democratic Congress eager to give her a blank check,” Ryan wrote.
The endorsement was notable because Trump and Ryan have had an extremely rocky relationship. Ryan disinvited Trump from appearing with him at an October event in Wisconsin after video surfaced of Trump and TV host Billy Bush making comments about women that were widely-criticized as lewd and sexist. Ryan subsequently told the House Republican Conference that he did not intend to campaign for Trump and actually shied away from discussing the candidate when pressed by reporters.
Even in the op-ed, Ryan mentions Trump name only once and at the very end of the column. “Clinton” or “Clintons”, by contrast, is mentioned six times.
