House Speaker Paul Ryan dealt a blow to Donald Trump's presidential candidacy Monday, telling Republican lawmakers on a morning conference call that he would never again campaign alongside Trump.
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Instead, he said, he would dedicate himself to defending the party's majority in Congress, according to five lawmakers who participated in the call and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ryan's stance drew an immediate rebuke from Trump, who tweeted that Ryan "should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee."
Effectively conceding defeat for his party in the presidential race, Ryan said his most urgent task was ensuring that Hillary Clinton did not enter the White House with Democratic control of the House and Senate, two lawmakers said.
[INTERACTIVE: The 2016 election in Arkansas]
Over the course of an hour, a stream of conservative lawmakers spoke up to urge their colleagues not to give up on Trump and chided Ryan for surrendering prematurely in the presidential race.
One, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, attacked Republicans stepping away from Trump as "cowards," three lawmakers said. Another, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, used graphic language to describe abortion and said allowing Clinton into the White House would end with fetuses being destroyed "limb from limb."
To quiet the uproar, Ryan chimed back in after about 45 minutes to assure members that he was not withdrawing his endorsement of Trump but rather doing what he considered to be in the best interests of the House.
Trump appeared indifferent to the distinction, lashing back at Ryan on Twitter with the call for him to "not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee."
AshLee Strong, a spokesman for Ryan, confirmed that his sole priority for the remainder of the election would be defending congressional Republicans.
"The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities," Strong said.
Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va., who has long been opposed to Trump, said there was a general sense in the House that more humiliating disclosures about Trump were likely to come before Nov. 8, Election Day.
"There's a consensus, even among supporters, that the likelihood of something else breaking in a very embarrassing and negative fashion is certainly better than 50-50," said Rigell, who joined the conference call Monday.
Chipper Clinton
A buoyant Clinton promised Monday to give Americans "something to vote for, not just something to vote against," but made clear that Democrats see new opportunity to press the case against Trump in the final four weeks of the election contest.
Riding high as Republicans sank into an internal crisis over Trump's behavior, Clinton campaigned in the nation's Rust Belt, pledging to push a "renaissance" of advanced manufacturing and sharply questioning Trump's commitment to blue-collar workers.
In her first campaign event since Sunday's second debate, Clinton acknowledged the ugliness of the face-off with Trump, telling an enthusiastic crowd of 3,500 in Detroit, "Bet you haven't seen anything like that before."
Still, Clinton encouraged voters not to let disgust at ugly politics turn them off from participating.
"That's what the other side wants you to feel, that 'I'm not going to vote because it's so nasty,'" she told her audience at Wayne State University. "That's the main reason to vote, to make it clear that we're not going to put up with that kind of attitude."
She did not mention the fallout after Ryan's Monday conference call. Instead, she recalled the debate.
"Donald Trump spent his time attacking when he should have been apologizing," Clinton said of the debate, in which Trump brought up allegations of sexual conduct by President Bill Clinton, called Hillary Clinton the "devil" and suggested he'd jail her if elected president.
Speaking to reporters aboard Clinton's campaign plane on Monday, Jennifer Palmieri, her communications director, made it clear that the campaign intended to tie down-ballot Republicans to Trump with a new fervor.
"There was a time where they could have spoken out against [Trump]," Palmieri said of senior Republicans like Ryan. "That time was this summer. Obviously, it is too late now."
Seeking to pad her lead in battleground states, Clinton's team was making a direct appeal for moderate Republican voters turned off by Trump. The Clinton campaign released new ads featuring Republican voters crossing party lines to cast their ballots for the former secretary of state.
"I don't always agree with her, but she's reasonable and she's smart," Republican Jennifer Kohn says in one spot.
Fighting the exodus
Trump's campaign had hoped that the debate Sunday would halt an exodus of fellow Republicans from his candidacy, and it publicly implored members of the party on Monday morning to hang with him through Election Day.
In an effort at reassurance, Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, toured the morning television shows to tamp down speculation that he might leave the ticket. At a campaign stop in North Carolina, Pence said he was "proud to stand with Donald Trump."
Pence, Indiana's governor, tried to put Trump's obscene remarks about women behind him. Importantly, Pence noted, Trump had apologized.
"We all fall short of the glory of God," Pence said at the rally. "I believe in forgiveness."
Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, meanwhile, offered a note of warning for Republicans fleeing Trump. Ryan, she noted on television, had been booed by Trump fans over the weekend in Wisconsin after he'd asked Trump not to attend a political event in his home state.
Conway also repeatedly indicated she was aware of Republican lawmakers who had behaved inappropriately toward young women and whose criticism of Trump was therefore hypocritical.
In Ambridge, Pa., Monday night, at his first post-debate rally, Trump continued to attack Clinton over her husband's marital indiscretions, citing allegations of sexual improprieties against former President Bill Clinton while dismissing intense criticism over his own treatment of women.
He also celebrated what he said was an overwhelming win against Clinton at Sunday night's debate. He said that Clinton had focused on "small, petty things" and that she repeatedly lied, although fact checkers monitoring the debate have long pointed out that Trump regularly misrepresents his record and delivers misleading facts.
Trump said that the past three days have "framed what this election is all about," which he said is about political outsiders taking on a biased political establishment and media.
Ryan's huddle with House Republicans was the first of multiple war councils in Washington on Monday as Republicans weighed how to handle a nominee whose campaign has struggled in recent days.
The Republican National Committee, which has been fiercely loyal to Trump, held a conference call with its members later in the afternoon. In contrast to the mounting defections from Trump's campaign among Republican elected officials, the party chairman, Reince Priebus, has remained close to Trump and flew with him to the debate in St. Louis over the weekend.
As telling as the fury from outspoken conservatives in the House was the silence from so many mainstream Republicans in the chamber, who showed little appetite to argue for -- or with -- their embattled nominee.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to acknowledge Trump on Monday, telling business leaders in his home state of Kentucky that if they expected to hear him discuss the presidential race they "might as well go ahead and leave."
Rep. Billy Long of Missouri spoke up in Trump's defense, citing the danger of losing the Supreme Court in the event of a Clinton victory.
"Many of us commented that if Hillary picks the next two to four judges, it will change the fabric of our country of 40, 50 years," Long said of the call. "Abortion and the Second Amendment, also, and lots of Supreme Court concerns."
Information for this article was contributed by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin of The New York Times and by Julie Pace, Erica Werner, Steve Peoples, Josh Funk, Thomas Beaumont, Brian Slodysko, Alan Fram, Bradley Klapper, Lisa Lerer, Jonathan Lemire, Matthew Barakat and Adam Beam of The Associated Press; and by John Wagner and Anne Gearan of The Washington Post.
A Section on 10/11/2016