House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Monday he’s done defending GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and told his fellow House Republicans they’re free to jump off the bandwagon as well, dealing a new blow to Mr. Trump as he tries to reforge party unity.
Mr. Ryan stopped short of rescinding his endorsement but his announcement to fellow Republicans kneecapped Mr. Trump’s momentum just hours after he had appeared to make headway among GOP voters in Sunday’s debate.
Mr. Trump lashed out at Mr. Ryan for the attack.
“Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.
The exchange marred the campaign’s attempts to get beyond the tape of Mr. Trump boasting about forcing himself onto women and trying to seduce a married celebrity, which has convinced dozens of Republicans — including those in competitive races — to publicly split with their nominee.
GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence made clear he’s still standing with Mr. Trump, and dismissed reports he’d flirted with jumping ship.
“It is absolutely false to suggest that at any point in time we considered dropping off this ticket,” Mr. Pence said on CNN. “It is the greatest honor of my life to have been nominated by my party to be the next vice president of the United States of America.”
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also made the rounds on the television talk show circuit, declaring Mr. Trump the big winner out of Sunday’s showdown with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Mrs. Conway invited the dozens of lawmakers that have ditched the nominee to rethink their decision.
“I can tell you as a campaign manager, we’d certainly welcome them back,” Ms. Conway said. “If those members can live with giving the next three or four Supreme Court justices over to Hillary Clinton, they should think about that.”
She’s charged that some of the Republican lawmakers who have abandoned Mr. Trump over his lewd remarks are hypocritical because they have acted in inappropriate ways with women.
With the election four weeks away, Mrs. Clinton appears to be putting daylight between her and Mr. Trump. She holds an 11 percentage-point lead in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday that included Mr. Trump, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
In a two-person national race, the poll gave Mrs. Clinton a 14-point lead, 52-38. Still, the Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll puts Mr. Trump up 3 points, 46-43, in a two-person race.
Republicans down the ballot are worried Mr. Trump could drag them down.
Mr. Ryan told lawmakers Monday that they needed to decide what’s best for them when it comes to how they handle Mr. Trump.
“The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities,” said AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokesperson.
In Sunday’s debate, Mr. Trump apologized for his lewd remarks about women and said they were “locker-room talk.”
He said he had never grabbed women without their consent.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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