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Speaker Paul Ryan formally endorses presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump
By Bonnie K. Goodman
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-WI is finally endorsing presumptive GOP nomineeDonald Trump, a month after he assumed the mantle as the GOP nominee. Ryan endorsed Trump on Thursday, June 2, 2016, in an op-ed for the Janesville Gazette of Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan’s hometown. The Speaker wrote that he plans to vote for Trump in November and that he is “convinced” Trump “will advance the Republican agenda.” Ryan’s endorsement comes nearly a month after he said he was not yet ready to endorse the newly minted presumptive GOP nominee since then Trump and Ryan met and have been getting closer to phone meetings.
Ryan, who is the chairman of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, wrote the op-ed endorsing Trump, which was published online Thursday afternoon. The speaker said of Trump, “Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.”
Ryan, who was the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, acknowledged the long road it took him to endorse Trump. Ryan continued, “It’s no secret that he and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.
There was a rapprochement between the two GOP leaders over their meetings in person and on the phone. Speaker Ryan is “encouraged” by Trump platform plans and direction for the party including possible Supreme Court nominees. Ryan indicated, “But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue. We’ve talked about the common ground this agenda can represent. We’ve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas.”
Continuing Ryan said, “We’ve talked about how important these reforms are to saving our country. And we’ve talked about how, by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.”
Speaker Ryan endorsed Trump on his accord and did not consult or advise Trump’s campaign of his decision. Ryan was the highest elected Republican to withhold an endorsement for the nominee. Throughout the primaries, Ryan had been critical of Trump’s policy proposals and positions.
After the Indiana primary, which cemented Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee Ryan appeared May 5, on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” where he announced he was not ready to endorse Trump yet. Ryan said, “I hope to support our nominee, I hope to support his candidacy going forward. But right now…I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.”
The next week Ryan and Trump met at Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, where they released a statement but still no endorsement. In the statement, they said, “We were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground… We are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal.”
Just at the end of last week, Ryan announced to the press “nothing’s changed my perspective.” Speculation, however, ran rampant over the Memorial Day weekend, that the speaker’s endorsement was imminent, and he decided to endorse Trump earlier in the week.
Ryan’s endorsement was perfectly timed, published at the same time as likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton gave a speech attacking Trump saying that electing him would be a “historic mistake.” The endorsement’s timing was coincidental Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck wrote on Twitter, “Believe it or not, we don’t follow her sched that closely.”
