House Republicans renominated
Speaker Paul D. Ryan as their leader on Tuesday, quieting rumours of an initial
revolt in the party in the wake of feuding between Ryan and US President-elect
Donald Trump.
To retain the speaker’s position, Ryan will still have to clear a vote by the
full House when the new Congress assembles in January — when he must win at
least 218 votes, The New York Times reported.
With the results of a few contests outstanding, Republicans will hold at least
239 seats, leaving a relatively healthy margin for dissent in their ranks. The
House Republicans said in a Twitter message that Ryan’s selection was
unanimous.
But Ryan will have more than his contentious relationship with Trump to
navigate. Stephen K. Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, whom Trump
named as his chief strategist, is a longtime critic of Ryan.
Though he endorsed Trump and urged Americans to vote for him in the days
leading up to the lection, Ryan repeatedly criticized the president-elect’s
more inflammatory statements during the campaign, once criticizing his proposed
ban on Muslims as “not what this country stands for”.
After the release of a 2005 recording in which Trump boasted in vulgar terms
about sexually assaulting women, Ryan disinvited him to a planned joint
appearance in Wisconsin and told Republicans he would no longer defend him nor
campaign for him.
Trump had said before his victory that Ryan should be punished for not offering
his full support.