A recording of House Speaker Paul Ryan distancing himself from then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in October was leaked Monday night, appearing to aim to drive a wedge between Ryan and Trump as the pair promote a proposed GOP health-care bill.
“I am not going to defend Donald Trump — not now, not in the future,” Ryan said in the audio obtained by Breitbart News, the right-wing website that has negatively covered the health-care plan. At the time of the recording on Oct. 10, Ryan said he would not campaign with Trump from then until the Nov. 8 election.
The comments, which came on a conference call with House Republicans, were heavily reported at the time, following the leak of a 2005 tape in which Trump bragged about touching women without their consent. The audio’s release now, though, comes at a challenging time for Ryan, as he tries to convince skeptical pockets of his party to support his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
A spokesperson for Ryan told Breitbart that the audio is nothing new, saying, “The world is well aware of this history … And obviously a lot has happened since then. As everyone knows.”
White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon reportedly left Breitbart in August, in order to serve as chief executive of the Trump campaign. It is unclear what ties exist between Bannon and Breitbart today, or if he still owns stock in the private news organization.
Ryan has said he has “no doubt [Republicans will] pass” the replacement bill. Meanwhile, he faces major headwinds from conservatives who say the plan too closely resembles the ACA, better known as Obamacare. Some moderate GOP senators have criticized its provision rolling back Medicaid expansion.
The opposition could be strong enough to derail the bill in either the House or the Senate.
Also on Monday, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report estimating that 14 million more people would become uninsured next year should the Republican proposal to replace Obamacare become law. That number would rise to 24 million by 2026.
Ryan, conversely, said the report shows that “when people have more choices, costs go down.” He went on to criticize Obamacare further, saying there would be a stable transition between health-care plans and that nobody would have the rug pulled out from under them.