Uh-oh. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who just a year ago took over after extremist House Republicans revolted against John Boehner, is in trouble with extremist House Republicans over his attempt to walk a line on Donald Trump. Ryan has tried desperately to maintain his reputation with the media and the general public by criticizing Trump occasionally, while keeping his base happy by continuing to support Trump. But Trump’s sexual assault problem has made that already difficult task nearly impossible.
Monday, Ryan said he was continuing to endorse Trump but wouldn't support him otherwise. That’s not going over well with his members:
“He just comes off as feckless,” another Republican member said. “And he makes it tougher on us, because we’re now the story.” [...]
“It was seen by many as a selfish thing, not as a selfless thing,” another member said of Ryan’s statement.
Wednesday night, Ryan told top donors that he was seriously concerned for the House majority, since Trump is currently down in the polls by more than John McCain’s 2008 loss, and Republicans lost 20 House seats that year. That said, Ryan's flailing may still not be the most effective response:
One former Virginia congressman, Thomas M. Davis III, said “panicked” Republicans might have made the party’s Trump-related problems even worse.
“It discourages turnout,” Mr. Davis said, noting that even as Mr. Trump sinks in the polls, he still has at least two-thirds of the party behind him. “Publicly disowning and running from him just creates havoc. It hurts everybody. I understand individual decisions, but when this happens institutionally, it hurts.”
And the speaker of the House is an institutional voice. In short, keep flailing, Paul!
Beyond winning the White House, we must also elect more progressive Democrats in Congress. With the PCCC and Daily Kos, you can now make phone calls to voters in the key districts that will get us more and better Democrats. Click here to start.