Speaker of US House of Representatives and the top Republican in the U.S. Congress Paul Ryan distanced himself from the Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump.
The move has stirred a backlash from some lawmakers and deepened the crisis over his party’s struggling presidential nominee.
In a conference call with congressional Republicans, Ryan all but conceded that Democrat Hillary Clinton was likely to win the White House on Nov. 8 and said he would put his full energy into preserving Republican majorities in Congress so as not to give her a “blank check.”
Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said he would not defend Trump or campaign for him after the uproar over Trump’s sexually aggressive comments surfaced on Friday.
The Speaker’s move further deepened the crisis of the Republican party.
Clinton has led Trump in most national opinion polls for months and Trump’s poll numbers have begun to drop further since the emergence on Friday of a video from 2005 showing the former reality TV star bragging crudely about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances.
