Principles!

[Content Note: Sexual assault.]

The Republican Party definitely has them:

Top Republican Paul Ryan deserted Donald Trump on Monday after an aggressive debate attack against Hillary Clinton failed to quell mounting disgust over his attitude toward women.

The speaker of the House told congressional colleagues on a conference call that he would no longer defend Trump or campaign with him. He urged them "to do what's best for you" to save the party's majority and avoid giving Hillary Clinton a blank check in the White House, though stressed he was not yet formally unendorsing the party's official nominee.

Winning above all. Do whatever you need to do to retain a majority, even if that means continuing to publicly support a man who has admitted sexually assaulting women.

Trump immediately fired back at Ryan on Twitter. "Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee," wrote Trump in a blast at the House speaker with whom he has long had a rocky relationship.

And, I shit you not, I actually saw with my own eyes a CNN segment yesterday in which the panel actually gave credit to Trump for not calling Ryan "a loser" in this tweet.

CNN panel literally giving Trump credit for not calling Paul Ryan a loser on Twitter today. The lowest of low bars.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 10, 2016

Meanwhile, on the same call, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus described continued party support for Trump thus:

How @Reince described RNC-Trump relationship on RNC call:

"very much involved"
"full coordination"
"fully engaged"
"together at all levels"

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) October 10, 2016

This is how the Republican Party leadership feels about their nominee who has admitted sexually assaulting women.

Which says an awful lot about how they feel about women, too.