CITIZENSHIP/ELECTION/IMMIGRATION/PAUL RYAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump attacked the Republican speaker of the House on Wednesday [10-31-18] for criticizing his position on birthright citizenship and said he should focus instead on safeguarding the party’s majority in Congress, a remarkable display of intraparty fighting six days before midterm elections in which the Republican majority is at risk…Mr. Trump’s broadside came a day after Mr. Ryan, the speaker from Wisconsin, dismissed the president’s plan, floated on Tuesday [10-30-18], to take executive action to nullify the constitutional guarantee that anyone born in the United States is a citizen, which he said was ‘obviously’ impossible. It suggested that the president, even as he begins a nationwide sprint of rallies meant to salvage Republican control of the Senate, was already preparing to cast blame elsewhere for the possible loss of the House. And it was the starkest example yet of how Mr. Trump, who has insisted that the coming elections are about him, has put Republican candidates in the position of having to answer for statements, actions and issues many would rather not touch.”
–Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “In Fit of Pique, Trump Attacks Ryan Just Days Before Midterm Elections,” The New York Times online, October 31, 2018