House Speaker Paul Ryan rebuked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his past sexually explicit comments and said the GOP nominee will no longer attend a joint appearance the two had planned Saturday in Wisconsin.
“I am sickened by what I heard today,” Ryan said in a statement released Friday night. “Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests. In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow’s event in Wisconsin.”
Republicans had planned a day of unity in a key battleground state ahead of Sunday night’s pivotal debate.
Ryan, who has long had an uneasy relationship with Trump, was scheduled to make his first joint appearance with the nomine at the annual Wisconsin Fall Fest in Elkhorn.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is perhaps the most vulnerable Republican up for reelection, Gov. Scott Walker, and Brad Courtney, the state GOP chairman, were also slated to be on hand.
Both Johnson and Walker also criticized Trump’s remarks.
“Donald Trump’s recent comments are completely indefensible and I refuse to even attempt to try and do so,” Johnson said in a statement.
The campaign said Trump will stay in New York City for debate preparation with Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
Trump’s campaign has been cast into crisis mode as it seeks to contain blowback from explosive audio and video, recorded in 2005, in which the GOP nominee is caught making lewd comments about women he hoped to have sex with.
Priebus is apparently sticking by Trump, but ripped him in a statement.
“No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner. Ever,” Priebus said.
Vulnerable Republicans are scrambling to rebuke their nominee, with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) releasing statements unloading on Trump.
Kirk called on Trump to drop out of the race, calling him a “malignant clown” that is “unfit” to be president.
In the leaked audio, discovered by The Washington Post, Trump is boasts about how easy it is to attract women as a famous person.
He said he tried to have sex with a married woman, ogled a female anchor on “Access Hollywood,” and talked about groping women.
“Grab them by the p—y,” Trump said.
Trump later apologized for the “locker room banter” in the audio, but said that former President Bill Clinton “has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close.”
“I apologize if anyone was offended,” he added.