Paul Ryan, Scott Walker To Skip Trump’s Wisconsin Visit

Donald Trump will campaign in Wisconsin on Oct. 17, but the state’s top Republicans will not be joining him.

Though House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Ron Johnson and Gov. Scott Walker have all endorsed the GOP presidential nominee, they will be completely absent from the campaign events of the day, following a number of sexual assault allegations several women have leveled against him as well as the release of a 2005 tape in which Trump made sexually aggressive comments about women, according to WCCO.

Walker and Johnson have denounced the comments that Trump made on tape but did not discuss the sexual assault claims.

“It’s up to Mr. Trump to address these allegations himself,” Johnson spokesman Brian Reisinger said in an email.

After the release of the audio, in which Trump made comments about groping women and kissing them without their permission, Ryan announced to Republican House members that he would no longer be campaigning for the GOP nominee or coming to his defense.

“We actually are running on ideas in this election,” he said, according to NBC News. “You would never know it would you? Guess what? There is an actual choice between two different schools of thought, two different philosophies, two different agendas, before us in this country, but you wouldn’t know it if you turn on the computer or the TV would you?”

Ryan added that he would “take a break from all the mudslinging and the mess that is out there on TV” in favor of focusing on his own policies and helping get Republicans elected to the House.

After the Wisconsin representative’s announcement, Trump hit back at Ryan on Twitter, calling him a “very weak and ineffective leader” and blasting him for demonstrating “disloyalty.”

“Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!” he tweeted on Oct. 11.

Sources: WCCO, NBC News, Donald Trump/Twitter (2) / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr