Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said on Twitter Thursday June 2nd, that he is going to vote for Donald Trump, the republican nominee for president come Fall. This endorsement came after Ryan said last month that he wasn’t ready to endorse Trump.
I'll be voting for @realDonaldTrump this fall. I'm confident he will help turn the House GOP's agenda into laws. https://t.co/LyaT16khJw
— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) June 2, 2016
The tweet also linked to an op-ed Paul Ryan submitted to the Janesville Gazette, a paper from his hometown. Neither the op-ed nor the tweet include the precise word “endorsement” but a spokesperson for Ryan, Brendan Buck, also on twitter said there is no need to parse the Speaker’s words.
We're not playing word games, feel free to call it an endorsement.
— Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) June 2, 2016
Buck said on Twitter that there will be a video for Ryan’s announcement as well. He also seemingly preemptively denied that Ryan’s announcement was specially timed to coincide with a high profile speech foreign policy speech by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: “While a fun coincidence, it wasn’t timed to a Hillary Clinton speech. Believe it or not, we don’t follow her [schedule] that closely.” Buck said on Twitter.
In the op-ed Ryan addressed the well-known differences he and Trump have. He said that on the issues that comprise the republican agenda, he and Trump “have more common ground than disagreement.”
Ryan also explained that his hesitation in endorsing Trump was out of a concern for his policy positions. Ryan said he needed more time to make sure that Trump was on board with his vision. However Ryan makes no specific reference to the highly publicized meeting between Ryan and Trump on Thursday, May 12th, nor did he say anything about the over two week delay between that meeting and his endorsement on June 2.
On Twitter former house speaker, Newt Gingrich, who endorsed Trump on May 11, praised Ryan for not only his endorsement but his prudence in the matter.
Speaker Paul Ryan showed real leadership in patiently working through key issues and then endorsing Trump. The right way to do it.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) June 2, 2016
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore
