Paul Ryan 'Won't Defend' Donald Trump Anymore; Trump Blasts Ryan On Twitter

The highest-profile leaders of the Republican party appeared to be in open war Monday — less than a month before the presidential election — as House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would no longer defend Donald Trump and his antics and the Republican nominee took to Twitter to blast the Wisconsin congressman.

Ryan continued his impressive political tightrope walk Monday, reportedly telling a group of leading Republicans that he would no longer defend Trump without formally rescinding his endorsement of the GOP nominee for president.

As Trump continued to plummet in presidential polling, Ryan said on a conference call with the Republican conference that he "won't defend" Trump's antics any more, instead choosing to focus on retaining the House's Republican majority, according to the New York Times, which reported on the call along with CNN and other national news outlets.

Trump a few hours later took to Twitter to say that Ryan shouldn't "waste his time fighting Republican nominee."

Almost simultaneously as Trump fired off his midday tweet, Trump's running mate Mike Pence was in North Carolina praising his humility.

"It takes a big man to know when he's wrong and to admit it and to have the humility to apologize," Pence said. "And Donald Trump showed last night that he’s a big man."

Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, refused to take back his endorsement of Trump on the call, but many GOP leaders took Ryan's comments to mean he was giving up on Republicans' chances of taking back the White House.

Here's how the Times described the call:

On a conference call with the Republican conference, Mr. Ryan urged his members to focus on their own re-election campaigns and to make individual decisions about how to handle Mr. Trump, according to two people who were on the call, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

All but conceding defeat in the presidential race, Mr. Ryan said he would dedicate himself full time to keeping control of the House and said flatly that he “won’t defend” Mr. Trump,” the people on the call said. And while he did not say he was withdrawing his endorsement, some of the House members took it that way and angrily attacked him for effectively giving up on Mr. Trump.

"The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities," AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said in a statement to several news outlets.

One person on the call told CNN that Ryan "will spend his entire energy making sure that Hillary Clinton does not get a blank check with a Democrat-controlled Congress."

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Ryan's comments don't change anything for the Trump campaign.

Ryan's comments come after he disinvited Trump from a weekend fundraiser in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, following the leak of audio showing Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.

At that event Saturday, Ryan was met by a smattering of both jeers and support from the crowd for still standing by his endorsement of Trump.

Despite all of that, the speaker only briefly touched on the issue. He said there was an "elephant in the room," and he stood by the statement he issued Friday but said he was not here to talk about that.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Image via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons