Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said earlier today that he won’t be defending Trump any more. Now it appears the Senate’s top GOP leader is taking the same approach:

As GOP senators scramble to survey the damage caused by Donald Trump’s explicit comments about women, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had some direct advice for a local Kentucky group: Don’t ask him about the presidential election.

“If you are interested in the presidential election, you might as well go ahead and leave because I don’t have any observations to make about it,” McConnell said Monday at a Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce luncheon, according to The Associated Press.

The Republican leader — who frequently ignores or sidesteps questions about Trump from reporters in the Capitol — said on Monday that luncheon attendees shouldn’t ask him about the presidential race “even though that’s what I know you all wanted me to talk about today.”

McConnell’s decision is less startling than the decision of Ryan, who (until this past Friday) had planned to campaign with Trump. McConnell often avoids questions about Trump. But Trump is down and needs help — and the pointed refusal of top Congressional leaders to give it to him is a signal that they think he will be an albatross around their necks.

Based on recent polls, they’re probably right.

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