But the constituents of many of these Republican representatives weren’t happy about the move.
After South Dakota Senator John Thune called on Trump to drop out and let his running mate Mike Pence take over the ticket, the backlash was as swift as it was severe.
According to the Argus Leader newspaper, voters in South Dakota were calling for Thune to resign because of his anti-Trump comments. “I think he needs to go about the people of South Dakota’s wishes,” Bob Guhin told the Leader. Guhin created a Facebook group calling for Thune to get out of the race.
“And yes, what Trump said was bad, but it’s not his [Thune’s] job to tell him [Trump] to drop out. He should have kept quiet about it.”
So it should come as no surprise that, only five days after Trump’s comments first surfaced, Republicans are already running back, scared by the voters’ reaction.
Speaker Paul Ryan is a huge facing backlash from House Republicans over his attempt to smear Trump, and his own job may be on the line after he told House Republicans on Monday that he will no longer defend the nominee.
Rep. Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma — a conservative who voted for Ryan last year for speaker— is threatening to pull his support if the Wisconsin Republican Ryan won’t fall in line. “Given the stakes of this election, if Paul Ryan isn’t for Trump, then I’m not for Paul Ryan,” Bridenstine tweeted on Wednesday.
Other furious GOP members pushed back at Ryan, arguing he should be defending Trump. The nominee himself repeatedly blasted Ryan on Tuesday, lamenting his leadership and blaming him for eroding party unity.
Trump supporters believe the release of a 2005 video showing the GOP nominee in a bad light, were leaked by globalists who defend open borders. Paul Ryan, who has devoted most of his career promoting the “free movement” of people across national boundaries and open borders, is one of them they say.
Ryan adopted a left-wing attitude suggesting that GOP opposition to mass migration is fueled by “ignorance”. He also rejected the idea of America as “a country” calling it an “idea” open to mass immigration from Mexico instead. But the history of the United States is not one of immigration but assimilation.
It’s now clear that some globalist Republicans were unprepared to deal with the impact these defections would have on base voters, who are wreaking havoc down-ballot across the country.
On Wednesday the House Republican Conference were actively engaged in damage control, urging the campaign in a private conference call to back away from the Ryan attacks and focus on Democrats instead, according to a source on the call.
Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the speaker is “fighting to ensure we hold a strong majority next Congress”.
