2016 ELECTION/CAMPAIGN/POLITICS/ PAUL RYAN: “On a never-before-released private October conference call with House Republican members, House Speaker Paul Ryan told his members in the U.S. House of Representatives he was abandoning then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump forever and would never defend him ever again.
In the Oct. 10, 2016 call, from right after the Access Hollywood tape of Trump was leaked in the weeks leading up to the election, Ryan does not specify that he will never defend Trump on just the Access Hollywood tape—he says clearly he is done with Trump altogether.
‘I am not going to defend Donald Trump—not now, not in the future,’ Ryan says in the audio, obtained by Breitbart News and published here for the first time ever…
‘His comments are not anywhere in keeping with our party’s principles and values,’ Ryan said. ‘There are basically two things that I want to make really clear, as for myself as your Speaker. I am not going to defend Donald Trump—not now, not in the future. As you probably heard, I disinvited him from my first congressional district GOP event this weekend—a thing I do every year. And I’m not going to be campaigning with him over the next 30 days.’ “
-Mathew Boyle, “Exclusive — Audio Emerges of When Paul Ryan Abandoned Donald Trump: ‘I Am Not Going to Defend Donald Trump—Not Now, Not in the Future’,” Breitbart News, March 13, 2017