House speaker Paul Ryan all but cut and sprinted from the presidential race Monday, telling Republican members that he would spend the election’s final month working to preserve the party’s congressional majority instead of defending Donald Trump.

The GOP nominee for president interpreted the news as paraphrased “fighting” words. Some House Republicans were reportedly upset—for reasons of electoral politics and governance alike—that Ryan would abandon Trump. And it was with this split the party found itself pointing fingers, at each other and at panic buttons, with less than 30 days from what many conservatives worry could be a disastrous election.