House Speaker Paul Ryan signaled Friday that he and other Republican leaders have abandoned the presidential election this year, by making no references at all to Donald Trump in a key speech delivered to a group of college Republicans at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Ryan, R-Wis., met for 50 minutes with students to outline his vision for the party’s future. He fielded a half-dozen questions from the audience, none of which made reference to Trump even though the election is just weeks away.
Instead, Ryan told students to work on making sure the U.S. Senate remains in GOP hands so the Republicans can put important legislation on the president’s desk, “no matter who the next president is going to be.”
Ryan’s speech followed a tumultuous week for Trump, who has dropped several points below Clinton in new polling that followed the leak of a tape showing Trump making lewd remarks about women. This week, several women have come forward and accused Trump of groping them.
Ryan on Monday told Republican lawmakers in a conference call that he will no longer appear with Trump or try to defend him publicly. Trump responded with a Twitter attack on Ryan and GOP leaders. Trump called Ryan a “weak and ineffective leader.”
In Madison, Ryan held true to his pledge to ignore Trump and made only veiled references to the presidential election, which has devolved into a mudslinging contest between Trump and Clinton camps.
“I know many people are still making their choice,” Ryan said, referring to the Nov. 8 election. “I know some are avoiding making a choice at all. I don’t begrudge anyone for that. It is certainly easy, at a time like this, to get bogged down. To let our fears overcome our hopes, to lose sight of the horizon.”
While Ryan avoided mentioning Trump, he warned against a Clinton victory and said her vision for America “is a place where government is taken away from the people, and we are ruled by our betters, by a cold and unfeeling bureaucracy that replaces original thinking.”
Ryan’s speech focused mostly on what Congress can do, and his hope that the Senate will remain in GOP hands. He told the college group that the Senate majority may hinge on whether incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is in a close fight with Democratic challenger Russ Feingold, wins his race.
Johnson is among a half-dozen Senate GOP incumbents in toss-up contests.
Ryan said advancing the GOP agenda, which includes tax reform, economic reform and replacing Obamacare, would be “much more difficult,” if the Democrats retake the Senate.
“We’ll keep fighting for what we believe and we’ll keep passing things in the House, but we have to get things to the president’s desk,” Ryan said.
Ryan, who has avoided rebutting Trump’s insults, advised the college Republicans to do the same when talking with others about the upcoming election, which has bitterly divided the nation.
“The kind of election we really want to have isn’t the one we necessarily are having right now,” Ryan said. “So, what I’d say is, don’t walk yourself into some bizarre personality contest, but get into an ideas contest.”
