WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Chairman [crscore]Paul Ryan[/crscore], candidate for speaker, sought help from members Friday to cement his bid as Speaker of the House.

According to a senior staff source, Ryan met with members in meetings and had not backed down at all on insisting on getting rid of the motion to vacate.

Ryan is doing this by trying to eliminate the motion to vacate the chair. Current House rules say that any member of the chamber may force a vote to oust the speaker. The motion requires only a simple majority to pass. The measure, created by Thomas Jefferson, has existed throughout American history, as a check on the power of the speaker.

The Daily Caller reached out to Paul Ryan’s Ways and Means office and asked if the chairman is seeking out help from Democrats as well as Republicans for help to get rid of the motion, but Ryan’s office did not comment on the matter. One  aide in House Minority Whip [crscore]Steny Hoyer[/crscore]’s office said Mr. Ryan nor his office reached out to Hoyer, and Ryan’s staff has not reached out to Hoyer’s staff either about support to eliminate the motion to vacate the chair.

Ryan previously told Politico that he wants to “do away with” the motion. However, Brendan Buck, Ryan’s spokesman, told reporters that Ryan may want to propose “a change to the process for a motion to vacate the chair,” but he didn’t call for scrapping it altogether.

Buck added, “No matter who is speaker, they cannot be successful with this weapon pointed at them all the time.”

Members of the House Freedom Caucus gave their support but not endorsement to Ryan on Wednesday night after around 70 percent of the caucus members voted to support his speaker candidacy. However, without a full endorsement, Ryan does not have assurances from Freedom Caucus members that they will agree to his preconditions.

Ryan told the conference Tuesday night that if he were elected speaker, he would want to eliminate the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. He also wants to see the conference unite, as well as have enough time with his family.