Donald Trump: Growing Revolt Among Republican Delegates Trying To Prevent His Nomination [Video]
Things aren’t looking very good for Donald Trump, even among his own party. The former reality TV star can’t seem to stay away from social media long enough to stop putting his figurative foot in his mouth. Just last weekend, Donald Trump sent out a controversial tweet featuring Hillary Clinton and a six-pointed star that has the world crying “Antisemitism.” Now there is word that members of the GOP are doing everything in their power to sway delegates away from Trump at the upcoming Republican National Convention.
Leaders of the GOP Now Prefer that Donald Trump Was Not the Leader of there Party. Delegates are leading a charge… pic.twitter.com/yXH01pLUlw
— The Resistance Party (@ResistanceParty) July 4, 2016
As Fox News reports, Donald Trump isn’t getting a lot of love from quite a few of his party’s own delegates. The anti-Trump sentiment has gotten so severe and become so widespread that many Republican delegates are mounting an ever-growing end-of-the-line effort to prevent Trump from securing the party’s nomination at the upcoming Cleveland convention.
Delegates hope to stop Donald Trump from getting any closer to the White House by fighting current state laws and Republican party policies that prevent delegates from switching their respective votes at the convention. Specifically, delegates are fighting against the rules in states with winner-take-all primaries, which bind delegates from those state to vote (at the convention) for the winner of their state primary, even if the individual delegates originally cast their vote for another candidate.
Jerrod White, an Arizona Republican delegate, spoke out on the matter. Under current law, Arizona delegates have to cast their convention vote for Donald Trump because he won the state’s primary.
“If we were in a position where we didn’t have a divisive or a controversial candidate going into Cleveland we probably would have been ok.”
Jarrod White has affiliated himself with a group known as “Free the Delegates,” which is encouraging delegates to vote with their conscience at the upcoming convention, rather than being bound by current party rules and regulations.
@KendalFTD16 @GOP #Freethedelegates Take back the Party of Lincoln & Reagan!#SaveAmerica w/#Rubio pic.twitter.com/uLMZbqmTs5
— DianeE (@dianeeldredge99) July 2, 2016
Proving Republicans are good at shooting themselves in the foot. @realdonaldtrump is #NationalEmbarassment
— Melinda D. Collins (@mdcolliM) June 30, 2016
Robert Graham, Chairman of the Arizona Republican party, thinks that the movement to strip Donald Trump of so-called “earned” pledged delegates is ridiculous, and he wants his state to have no part of it.
“I have the law and the rules on my side. And it’s not to be unfair it’s just to manage this entire process and maintain a professional decorum.”
According to the Arizona Republican Party Chairman, Arizona delegates have already agreed to support the winner of their state’s primaries, and as such, if Arizona delegates refuse to support Donald Trump, they should step aside.
“Let somebody who’s enthusiastically engaged in the process to go and participate.”
I'm the youngest RNC delegate. Donald Trump lost my vote. https://t.co/dxoLPkvAtO via @RedAlert pic.twitter.com/8fjrZqBLGb
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 29, 2016
Jerrod White disagrees with the Arizona Republican leader’s stance when it comes to convention support of Donald Trump.
“That’s him saying, you know, ‘sit down and be quiet.’ That’s not who we are as grass roots activists.”
Arizona isn’t the only state dealing with a lot of GOP infighting over Donald Trump and his upcoming presumptive nomination at the Cleveland convention.
Disgruntled Virginia delegates have filed a lawsuit in federal court in an effort to have Virginia’s delegate-binding law declared unconstitutional. That effort is being led by state delegate Carroll Correll, who formerly supported Ted Cruz, but (according to Correll’s attorney), it’s “brought on behalf of all of the delegates, Democrat and Republican, from Virginia.”
The Virginia lawsuit is seeking to prevent Donald Trump from being nominated by demanding that their injunction be implemented before the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions begin.
“There are approximately 20 other states that have such binding laws in various versions.”
Delegates Unbound, a group that encourages GOP delegates not to vote for Donald Trump, is also releasing a TV ad encouraging Republican delegates to “Follow Your Conscience” rather than vote for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has argued with these delegates, stating that he has gotten to this point in the 2016 campaign because he’s gotten the largest number of primary voters in U.S. history.
Top GOP officials seem to tend to agree with Donald Trump.
“We at the RNC must stand by our presumptive nominee’s side and defend against all who would threaten our legitimacy as a national party. What is more important than anything else is uniting and defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.”
What do you think? Should Republican delegates follow the rules and cast their convention votes for Donald Trump? Or, do disgruntled GOP delegates have a point (and should they have the right) to vote against Donald Trump if their conscience demands it?
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