Paul Ryan Maintains Endorsement of Donald Trump

(ABC News) – House Speaker Paul Ryan is not rescinding his endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump but told fellow House Republicans in a conference call today that they should handle Trump however they think it will most benefit their own races.

“You all need to do what’s best for you in your district,” he told the representatives, according to a person on the call.

He also said he would not defend Trump or campaign with him for the next 30 days.

AshLee Strong, a Ryan spokeswoman, said that there was no change in his position on Trump.

Ryan endorsed Trump in June, writing in an op-ed, “I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.”

A person on the call said Ryan will spend the rest of the campaign cycle “making sure that Hillary Clinton does not get a blank check with a Democrat-controlled Congress.”

Strong said Ryan was explicit on the conference call that he was not conceding that Clinton would win the presidential election on Nov. 8.

The language he used in the conference call today was similar to that in an August fundraising email, in which he wrote, “If we fail to protect our majority in Congress, we could be handing President Hillary Clinton a blank check.”