Rachel Maddow Predicts RNC Will Stab Trump Voters In The Back

Rachel Maddow’s appearance on The Tonight Show this week was one of the more recently circulated videos where she goes head-to-head with Tina Fey for “Know It All,” on the show.

What didn’t get as much attention was her prediction on how the GOP is going to select their nominee; simply by not choosing Donald Trump.

On the same day before her appearance on the show, Maddow devoted a large part of her program to that prediction of a repeat of what happened in 1968, where the Democratic party turned and nominated a candidate who had taken advantage of the unorganized caucuses — never in any primaries — during the National Convention, surprising elected delegates and voters.

This idea was further discussed with Mitt Romney’s Republican campaign attorney from 2012, Ben Ginsberg.

At the beginning of the program, Maddow first explained how messy and unorganized caucuses can be. Which in hindsight, matched up with some of the issues reported from caucuses in Nevada, where it was said to be “rampant chaos.”

ABC News collected reports through social media and published the details, which added to something else Rachel Maddow described in her program.

“There was also that great moment that we accidentally captured live on camera in the caucuses in Nevada this year, when Donald Trump walked into the room during a Republican caucus just outside Las Vegas, and everybody in the room just left their ballots that they were filling out, they left their ballots on their little tables, and ran over to see Donald Trump in the corner of the room. And who knows whatever happened to all those ballots and all those votes.”

Then she goes on to explain how in 1968, Eugene McCarthy was running on the Democratic ticket winning six of the 13 primaries when Robert Kennedy was assassinated – he had four primary wins, and even though incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson had decided to not run for re-election that year, his presence “loomed large” because of his desire to continue the war in Vietnam, despite that McCarthy had gained popularity for his anti-war stance.

When they finally gathered at the convention that year, the Democratic party leadership suddenly turned and picked Hubert Humphrey as their nominee — the incumbent U.S. Vice-President — who had been involved in back room dealings with the leadership, negotiating and trading delegates from those caucuses, in states that were controlled by party leaders.

This caused madness to infect the crowd with fights breaking out. Elected delegates were reportedly arrested or dragged out of the convention, causing the Democratic party to explode and guaranteeing a win for Nixon, who didn’t have a chance otherwise.

A certain journalist named Dan Rather had even been muscled and punched in the stomach, when he was trying to speak to a delegate who was forcefully removed.

The intensity of the call to get rid of Donald Trump went full steam this Wednesday, immediately following Super Tuesday when Trump gained more momentum, making it more obvious that he’s close to winning top billing as the face of the Republican party. In this report published by the Inquisitr, a list of Republicans against Trump, as of that writing, claimed to have reached 100 signatures.

Rachel Maddow even brought up Rubio on her program, indicating that he is still the GOP’s choice, despite the fact he’s hardly won any primaries, and is, at best, coming in third.

This can also be confirmed in Mitt Romney’s televised attack on Trump – which Rachel Maddow covered – where he also referred to Rubio as leading all other candidates, including Donald Trump.

Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert made some ironic connections between both Trump and Romney in his segment, but another little mentioned irony is that it was 1968 when George Romney, Mitt’s father, was also running for president.

When Rachel Maddow did specifically say that the Republicans were planning to defy Trump’s voters during the convention, she might have been referring to the news that Mitt might be planning to block Donald Trump, which was reported by CNN.

“This is not a fantasy about what might happen at some distant point in the future, this is what the Republican party is planning on doing right now to deal with him.”

In the article by CNN, the news source says, “Romney is focused on suppressing Trump’s delegate count to prevent him from accumulating the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination.”

As of this writing, Trump currently has 373 delegates while Rubio — the already mentioned preferred candidate — has 122.

It’s even been suggested that Mitt Romney might carry the nomination instead.

This is what Rachel Maddow brings up, along with her prediction to The Tonight Show.

And in the mentioned CNN article, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was specifically asked about the block, but claims that he had not heard anything about it or any conversations mentioning it.

In the past, when asked about whether he would support the billionaire mogul, he only said he would support whoever the nominee was, never directly mentioning him by name.

Trump’s voters have expressed outrage after Mitt Romney made his speech according to the New York Times, where at least one voter who supported Mitt Romney before was upset.

Other predictions have generally not gone past the convention, stretching the idea that it would become a brokered convention which fits with the claim that the RNC will adjust certain rules to make it harder for Trump’s nomination. If Rachel Maddow is correct, however, no one can yet know if the reaction will turn out as it did 48 years ago.

[Featured image by Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo]