Says Paul Ryan “is still endorsing Trump.”
— Hillary Clinton on Monday, October 10th, 2016 in a tweet
One of the most vexing quandaries for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016 has been whether, and how, to support the GOP’s presidential nominee.
Finally, a month from election day, Ryan somewhat reluctantly agreed to make his first public appearance with Donald Trump, at a political rally in his southern Wisconsin district.
But on the day before rally, a videotape of Trump talking crassly about women surfaced.
In the 2005 video, Trump uses graphic terms to describe a woman’s body and says he frequently tries to kiss beautiful women and even grab their genitals.
Ryan denounced Trump and said Trump would not be attending the rally.
Three days after the video’s release, on Oct. 10, 2016, Ryan went further, declaring to fellow Republican House members he would not defend Trump, and instead focus on maintaining the GOP’s majority in the House.
So, we wondered about a tweet issued the same day by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
She claimed: “Ryan is still endorsing Trump.”
Ryan’s dilemma on supporting Trump was evident in May 2016, when we tested him on our Flip-O-Meter, which is used to see whether a politician has changed positions. We gave Ryan a Half Flip.
At the time, just after Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee with a win in Indiana’s primary, Ryan had said repeatedly he would support for president whomever won the Republican nomination. He said so even when asked specifically about Trump.
Yet in his first comments after Trump won in Indiana, Ryan wavered. He did not say he would not support Trump. But he stated he was not ready to support him at that time.
Then in June 2016, a month before Trump won the nomination, Ryan endorsed him, saying:
“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.”
Early on Oct. 10, 2016, Politico reported that, according to sources, Ryan was discussing whether to revoke his Trump endorsement. Clinton sent her tweet several hours later, after Ryan held a private conference call with House Republicans that was later discussed publicly.
Clinton’s campaign cited to us a same-day blog post from the Los Angeles Times about the call. The post was headlined: “House Speaker Paul Ryan will not campaign with Trump, but still endorses him.”
Other news accounts on the conference call were similar.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated Ryan “stopped short of rescinding his own tepid endorsement of Trump,” and quoted a Ryan aide as saying there is “no update” in his position on Trump “at this time.”
The New York Times and ABC News said Ryan responded to criticism for not supporting Trump more by emphasizing that he wasn’t withdrawing his endorsement.
As for Ryan himself, when we asked his campaign about Clinton’s claim, a spokesman simply reiterated what had been put out earlier, saying: “There is no update in his position at this time.”
Our rating
Clinton says Ryan “is still endorsing Trump.”
As of the time when Clinton made the claim, Ryan’s endorsement of Trump for president remained in place.
We rate the statement True.
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