House Speaker Paul Ryan responded to news that the FBI had again cleared Hillary Clinton by encouraging voters to cast their ballots on Election Day for Donald Trump.
“Let’s bring the Clinton era to an end by voting for Donald Trump on Tuesday,” Ryan said in a statement.
The Wisconsin Republican’s direct mention of Trump was notable.
Ryan has criticized Trump throughout the 2016 election and said last month that he would no longer defend or campaign for the Republican nominee.
The House speaker’s relationship with Trump has been lukewarm at best. He initially refused to endorse Trump’s candidacy and later did so only in a tepid fashion.
But while Ryan has been a critic of Trump, he has been an even stronger detractor of Clinton. His Sunday statement on the FBI's announcement zinged the former secretary of state for her handling of classified information while she served as secretary of state.
"Regardless of this decision, the undisputed finding of the FBI's investigation is that Secretary Clinton put our nation's secrets at risk and in doing so compromised our national security," he said.
Ryan added: "She simply believes she's above the law and always plays by her own rules. This is a pattern with the Clintons, and the American people should not have to endure four more years of their scandal and baggage."
With just two days to go until Election Day, both Clinton and Trump were furiously crisscrossing the US in a frantic last-minute push to turn out the vote in key battleground states.
Polls in recent days have increasingly tightened, though analysts still favor Clinton to emerge as the victor Tuesday night.
