House speaker and Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan said he “already voted” for Donald Trump during his state’s early voting period, marking a public declaration of support weeks after making a private announcement that he would withdraw from defending and campaigning for his party’s nominee.
“I stand where I’ve stood all fall and all summer. In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our nominee last week in early voting,” Ryan said during an interview from his hometown Tuesday on Fox and Friends. “We need to support our entire Republican ticket.”
Ryan placed his full focus on Hillary Clinton, calling her out by name repeatedly without ever mentioning the words “Donald Trump”.
“Here’s the other thing I’d say: For those of us who lived through the 1990s, it’s sort of a feeling of déjà vu. The point that I keep trying to make to younger voters who did not live through the 1990s [is] this is what life with the Clintons looks like. It’s always a scandal, one after the other, then there’s an investigation, and what happens is you never know what’s coming next,” he said. “They live beyond the rules and they live to work the system to help themselves, to help ‘Clinton, Incorporated.'”
The long-time conservative wonk also pitched his “Better Way” agenda—the enactment of which has frequently been his justification for voting Republican up and down the ticket.
“If we don’t win the White House, if we don’t win Congress, we don’t get this. We get Clinton’s scandals,” Ryan said. “She will come in, just like Barack Obama did, but with all her scandal baggage, and I don’t think that’s what the American people want to see.”
Ryan also stuck by his distance from Trump on the campaign trail, saying his two responsibilities this election are keeping Nancy Pelosi from regaining the speakership and making sure Republicans vote.
