Presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed the Republican Party as leaders continued to distance themselves after his leaked lewd comments on women. He particularly trashed House Speaker Paul Ryan, saying he did not care about his support.
"I don't want his (Paul Ryan) support," Trump said on Tuesday in an interview to Fox News.
"I don't care about his support. What I want to do is I want to win for the people," Trump added.
Trump's attacks come a day after Ryan told his House of Representatives colleagues he would no longer defend or campaign for Trump after a 2005 video emerged showing him making obscene comments about groping women, CNN reported.
However, Ryan maintained that he was still endorsing and voting for Trump.
Arizona Senator John McCain -- the 2008 presidential nominee -- also withdrew his endorsement over the weekend following the release of the video on Friday that showed Trump making lewd remarks about an unidentified married woman he hoped to have sex with and boasted about how easy it was to attract women with his celebrity status and even talked about groping women.
"When you're a star, women let you do anything," he was recorded as saying.
The real-estate magnate also said that the Republicans were coming at him "from all sides" and their disloyalty was harder to fight than the Democrats.
"They're not giving support -- they don't give the support that we really need -- but the fact is that I think we should get support and we don't get the support from guys like Paul Ryan," Trump said.
In the interview he also listed grievances against Ryan, ranging from "open borders and amnesty" to "bad budgets".
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama's spokesman said Trump's remarks were "repugnant" and amounted to sexual assault.
Nearly half the 331 incumbent Republican senators, House members and governors have condemned the lewd remarks and about 10 per cent have called for him to drop out of the race.
The renewed party divisions over Trump comes as a new PRRI/Atlantic poll suggested that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton holds a 49-38 lead over her opponent.
--IANS
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