Paul Ryan Tells Donald Trump ‘Bye Felicia’

Filed in National by on October 10, 2016

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This is breaking news — that Speaker Ryan has gathered his House Caucus and told them that he will not be defending Trump or campaigning with Trump. He also advised the members of his caucus to do what they needed to do, but he (Ryan) would be working to preserve congressional majorities:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan dealt a hammer blow to Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy Monday, telling Republican lawmakers that he would no longer defend Mr. Trump and would focus instead on defending the party’s majority in Congress.

But in an illustration of Mr. Trump’s powerful grip on much of the party, Mr. Ryan faced angry blowback from conservative lawmakers supportive of Mr. Trump.

After Mr. Ryan announced his decision in a conference call Monday morning, a stream of hard-liners came on the line to urge their colleagues not to give up on Mr. Trump, and complained that Mr. Ryan was effectively conceding the presidency.

Mr. Ryan initially urged his members to focus on their own re-election campaigns and to make individual decisions about how to handle Mr. Trump, according to two people who were on the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ryan is not “unendorsing” Trump, just not doing any work to elect him.

This is a day where the media narrative seems to be that Trump stopped the exodus of his “elite” support. And then Paul Ryan tells his caucus that his time is better spent on getting them re-elected. It made me wonder if the story the other day that the RNC is cutting Trump off from funds might have some truth to it. If you read the rest of the article, you can see the level of blowback Ryan got in this call today. It is, of course, their own fault — having to win back the districts they drew that concentrated the wingnuts together. So now they have their “safe” GOP districts and they are faced with plenty of their base who are going to be mad as hell that the party and the party elites won’t back Trump. Many of them can’t count on courting a broader coalition, since they functionally cut that effort off after the party’s self-assessment after Obama’s last win.

So here’s another battle in the GOP civil war and it’s all their own fault.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (15)

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  1. Jason330 says:

    Mike Castle still supports Trump.

  2. Delaware Dem says:

    The Donald has fired back.

    Actually, this sounds like it was written by Conway or Bannon and not Trump. Still… Smell the napalm in the morning.

  3. Delaware Dem says:

    The word is the private internal polling of both parties shows the bottom falling out not only in the Trump campaign, with Hillary winning Georgia and Texas, but also in congressional districts they thought were safe.

  4. cassandra_m says:

    That’s interesting, DD. And if true, probably why the story surfaced over the weekend that the RNC was cutting Trump off from funds.

  5. Liberal Elite says:

    The results could be interesting.

    If most of the deplorables turn on Ryan, then he’ll lose his seat.

    Lots of Republicans will likely get tossed and replaced by Democrats.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/politics/republican-reaction-trump.html

    It’s apparently a strategy for purifying the GOP, allowing only deplorables to serve.

    The question remains as to what kind of party rises from the ashes.

  6. Jason330 says:

    That came and went quickly. They are all patched up now because Trump has a jar full of RNC and Paul Ryan balls.

  7. kavips says:

    This blog being supportive of Democrats, you may be interested to know that many focus group Republicans are in a quandary, thinking they have no choice but to vote for a lesser evil, making now the time to use your space and comments to explain just how awesome Hillary is…

    It will do more good overall than reinforcing how bad the Donald is… Everyone on both sides sees that now, but if they see no choice between the two because there are no positive stories of Hillary to be found, only bad ones about Trump, the swing to the left will be much less than it could have otherwise been.

    We saw in 2008, people need hope… Hope works better than the alternatives.

  8. Jason330 says:

    I agree. That’s why I wrote a post a few months back saying that Hillary needed to run the sunniest, most goddam optimistic and bright campaign ever. She really hasn’t done that, although I’m seeing some glimmers.

  9. pandora says:

    She has said countless times that she believes in America, that we are a great nation, that she has hope for our future, etc.. It’s never going to be enough.

    After the debate I watched Chris Matthews get called out (by Nicole Wallace of all people) for judging Clinton’s performance harshly when the prior week he praised Pence for the same demeanor. She can’t win, no matter what she does. Hell, in the first debate people called her out for smiling too much. WTH? See, it doesn’t matter what she does. There’s a reason she’s winning with women overwhelmingly – we know how this game is played.

  10. jason330 says:

    Chris Matthews is a dick.

  11. Liberal Elite says:

    @J “That came and went quickly. They are all patched up now because Trump has a jar full of RNC and Paul Ryan balls.”

    Apparently not…

    Donald Trump Berates Paul Ryan and ‘Disloyal’ Republicans
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/us/politics/donald-trump-paul-ryan.html

    “Trump declares war on the Republican Party four weeks before Election Day”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-declares-war-on-the-republican-party-four-weeks-before-election-day/2016/10/11/93b21dc4-8fc9-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html

    This may have a YUGE impact.

    The people he is now attacking are depending on the deplorables at the ballot box.

  12. pandora says:

    Trump is setting up the GOP to take the blame for his loss. Classic Trump.

  13. Jason330 says:

    Liberal Elite, Nobody in Trump’s camp told him that the war was already won.

    No doubt because Paul Ryan is easier to beat up on that Secretary Clinton has proven to be. The Trump camp is fairly sure that every time Trump kicks Ryan he will be cheered, and he doesn’t have to worry about Ryan kicking back.

    Also – what Pandora said. Trump can read a poll and he needs a “stabbed in the back narrative” because a loss couldn’t possibly be his fault.

  14. Liberal Elite says:

    Yes, but the likely result is that the House goes to the Dems.

    By ripping the party in half … neither fragment is viable.