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Last stand? GOP delegates hatching plan to block Trump |
Republican convention delegates and operatives are creating a
long-shot movement to change party rules so the convention can choose
someone other than Donald Trump to run for president.
According to the Associated Press, more congressional
Republicans are not endorsing Trump and are planning to skip the
convention in Cleveland next month altogether. Rep. Duncan Hunter,
R-Calif., one of Trump’s top House backers, says his support among
lawmakers “has stalled.”
"We're acting to save the Republican Party from
imminent disaster," said Steve Lonegan, who chaired Sen. Ted Cruz's New
Jersey campaign and is helping organize an effort to let delegates
chosen to back one candidate vote instead for another.
Lonegan says Cruz is not involved in the effort.
The Washington Post
reported that Republicans believe Trump is letting the presidential
race get away from him already with his attacks on a federal judge, his
renewed calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and his support for
national gun law reform.
“This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,”
Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the
effort, told the Post. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and
be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that
job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who's
unenthusiastically backed Trump, said in an interview recorded for NBC's
Sunday show "Meet the Press" that GOP lawmakers should follow "their
conscience" when considering endorsing Trump.
“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do
something that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan says in his
interview with the news program Sunday, per The Post.
Others not supporting him or attending the convention
include House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton,
R-Mich., who for the first time in his 30-year congressional career is
not backing the party nominee.
Ryan, who has said he doesn't want to be an
alternative should Trump falter, didn't know Unruh — like him — used the
word "conscience," said Ryan spokeswoman Ashlee Strong.
Unruh's group, which Lonegan is helping, is using
social media and emails and held a conference call Thursday night to
organize efforts to find support.
To prevail, Unruh needs a majority of the 112 members
of the convention rules committee, which has two delegates from each
state and territory. Then, a majority of the full convention's 2,472
delegates would have to approve.
There's a Plan B. If Unruh can win over one-fourth
support from the rules committee — just 29 delegates — the full
convention must vote on her proposal. So far she's got around 10
supporters though some prefer delaying the rule's impact until the 2020
convention, she said.
Party officials looking to smooth Trump's convention path are already counting noses.
Randy Evans, Georgia's RNC committeeman, says his
informal tally suggests it will be a "pretty tall order" to prevent the
full convention from voting on unbinding delegates. But he said he
expects Trump forces to win a convention floor showdown "pretty
comfortably."
"They can make everything look tumultuous," Cindy
Costa, South Carolina's RNC committeewoman, said of those attempting to
let delegates vote freely. But it would be "a big mistake" and would
lose, she said.
Trump has already dismissed any plots that seek to overtake his impending nomination in July in a statement released Friday.
“I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more
votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries,” he
said. “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and
any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the
millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.
“People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will
do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to
happen.”
Previous attempts to boot Trump from the nomination
or change the rules to stop him haven’t panned out, but the new Hail
Mary approach vows to get a contested convention.
Many say, like him or not, Trump won and efforts to
dump him would be crushed and would devastate the GOP. According to The
Associated Press, Trump has 1,542 delegates, including 1,447 required by
party rules to back his nomination, well above the 1,237 needed for
victory.
One catch: Delegates "bound" to one candidate can
vote freely in convention rules fights. Delegates could sour on Trump
and approve procedures opening the door to an alternative.
"It's a fantasy, it won't happen," said Morton
Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia who
initially backed Cruz.
"We have a responsibility to respect our democracy,
and that means we accept the outcome of the vote," said Rep. Austin
Scott, R-Ga., who supported the presidential bid of Sen. Marco Rubio,
R-Fla.