US House Speaker Ryan says he already voted for Trump

US House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that he has already voted for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with whom he has had noisy public disagreements and whom he has openly criticised during the campaign.

In remarks to Fox News, the Republican Speaker said that he took advantage of early voting in his home state, Wisconsin, to vote last week for the business magnate.

"I stand where I've stood all fall and all summer. In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our (party's) nominee last week in early voting," EFE news service quoted Ryan as saying..

In early October, Ryan announced that he would no longer campaign for Trump because of the release of a 2005 videotape on which the real-state mogul is heard making lewd and sexist comments about women.

Ryan, at the time, had been scheduled to appear for the first time at a campaign event with Trump in Wisconsin, but after the videotape became public, withdrew his invitation to the billionaire to take part in the event, EFE news reported.

Nevertheless, the Speaker never said that he would withdraw his support for Trump or that he would not vote for him, in contrast to certain other Republican lawmakers who, tired of Trump's ongoing scandals, controversial remarks and insults, stopped backing him and even said they would vote against him.

Trump's response to Ryan's criticism was to chide him for being "weak and ineffectual".

On Tuesday evening, the businessman-turned-politician will campaign in Wisconsin without the presence of Ryan, whose main aim in the November 8 elections is for the GOP to maintain its current majority in the lower house.

If Republicans do not go to the polls, the Democrats "can win", and Clinton would have "a Democrat Congress, the worse of all possible things", Ryan warned on Fox News on Tuesday.

--IANS

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