House Speaker Paul Ryan has reportedly told his fellow congressional Republicans that he will not defend Donald Trump publicly — now or anytime in the future — and will focus solely on defending Republican House seats.

Ryan made his comments in a conference call with fellow House Republicans Monday morning. According to a report by the Associated Press, one of the lawmakers on the call has insisted that Ryan has not withdrawn his support for Trump, but will simply not be defending him either.

“It’s a two-way street.”

In a close presidential race, the refusal to defend a candidate publicly is essentially the same thing as condemning that candidate publicly. Ryan’s refusal to defend Donald Trump might as well be a revocation of his endorsement.

The speaker’s move comes after revelations of lewd comments Trump made about women 11 years ago and is an abrupt about-face from the direction in which he was marching only days ago.

Appearing on “The Laura Ingraham Show” Friday, Ryan said he was excited about the prospect appearing with Trump at an event that weekend. “We’re excited both Mike and Donald are going to be coming,” Ryan said.”It’s a two-way street. We both have to help each other,” he continued.

For Ryan to come out against actively supporting Trump the morning after the candidate gave a strong performance in his second head-to-head debate against Clinton could be a significant tactical error that may come back to haunt the Wisconsin congressman.

Ryan and company will no doubt find it far more difficult to galvanize the support of Republicans who feel he and his fellow congressmen stood silently by as Clinton strolled into the White House.

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On top of the risk of being seen as complicit in a potential Clinton win, congressional Republicans who abandon Trump put themselves in the position of arguing that a Republican-controlled Congress is crucial to stop the progressive agenda. This is exceedingly difficult, considering the past nearly six years prove otherwise. Since 2010, a GOP-controlled Congress has struggled with mixed results to slow President Obama’s radical agenda.

Indeed, had the Republican-controlled Congress achieved more success in stopping the War on Coal, the era of unrestrained mass migration to the U.S., the collapse of American leadership abroad, and more, many endangered House members might not have found themselves in the position of needing to fight tooth and nail for their offices in the first place.

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Ryan is throwing Trump under the figurative bus in order to appease a liberal media which will always be looking for a new angle to dump on congressional Republicans regardless.