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Never Trump Forces Halted on Convention Floor
Many were predicting a floor battle Monday at the the Republican National Convention and they certainly got one.
A group of delegates, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia, sought to unbind delegates from voting for the presumptive Republican nominee. A majority of delegates from nine states had agreed to their plan for a roll call vote on the official party rules, and they only needed seven states to make the plan stick. Another key part to their effort was to encourage states to hold closed primaries, allowing only Republicans to vote.
Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas was presiding at the time and insisted on a voice vote only. Many Never Trump supporters in the crowd shouted “roll call vote” and “point of order,” while pro-Trump delegates chanted his name to shout them down.
Womack abandoned the stage, leaving both sides in confusion wondering what was going on. After several minutes, he returned and announced that that three states had withdrawn support for a roll call vote, which means the measure had fallen short of the seven-state threshold. Another voice vote was held (the volume of which sounded even from the televised coverage), and Womack quickly declared the “Free the Delegates” plan dead and buried.
The crowd loudly expressed their pleasure and displeasure as Montana Sen. John Barasso took the stage for a low-energy speech demanding unity. But there were few signs of it on the convention floor.
“I have never seen anything like this,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a close ally of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a rival to presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“There is no precedent for this,” Lee said.
…After being denied the roll call vote, most of the delegation from Colorado walked off the floor in protest, leaving behind rows of empty seats.
…”It’s certainly disrespectful of the grassroots,” said former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, an influential rules committee member who had worked to whip enough support from the rules vote. “You win races with people, you lose races with people.”
“It’s all on them,” he said of the RNC before acknowledging the fight was over. “There’s nowhere to appeal.”
…While one angry delegate was speaking to the media about what just transpired, another Trump-backing delegate interrupted.
“Get over it!” she yelled.
Another delegate screamed “Go home!” at another anti-Trump delegate conducting interviews on the convention floor.
Delegates furious over the roll call vote insisted they were not giving up their efforts, but at the same time did not exactly know what their next move would be.
“Stay tuned. There’s a Plan B,” said Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate who co-founded the “Free the Delegates” movement. “We’re going to go back, we’re going to strategize…what they chose was to play hardball to make sure there wasn’t dissent, and now they’re going to get it.”
Reince Priebus and the GOP Establishment is now completely committed to the candidate which vilified them throughout the primaries. It’s Donald Trump’s party now.
Published in General
He’s actually trying to do just that. Just not with the NR-Ricochet crowd.
It looks like Trump’s going to try to pick off enough of the Bernie Sanders anti-big business crowd to cobble a majority without the need for many of the traditional Republican coalition.
He started it today by getting a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall put into the official Republican platform. Expect more domestic economic populism to come.
There is no reasoning with the jonestown wing of the republican party.
Objection. Non-responsive.
With republicans like that, who needs democrats?
No sir. The chattering classes have spoken. They are against Trump. Being antitrump is more important than the fact that Clinton will get elected. Nothing else matters but stopping Trump.
Egro they are pro-Clinton. If you stop Trump, you will get Clinton. There is no 3rd Option. David French, God Bless him, did not run.
That’s what I’ve been saying about Boehner, Ryan, Cornyn, and McConnell for months!
Except you have it backwards. The Klan people are on the trump side.
And that’s why I’ve been scratching my head for months about why voters thought that the best antidote to Republicans who constantly cave to Democrats was a Republican who embraces Democrat positions….
There have been numerous anti-Clinton articles on NR. I can’t think of a pro-Clinton article off hand or an NR contributor who has stood up and shouted that they’re supporting Clinton. Again, being critical of the great Donald J. Trump is apparently not allowed.
That’s because Trump needs to be stopped or he will destroy the republic.
We aren’t talking about a normal candidate here. We are talking about someone who is extremely dangerous.
Gosh. Kevin Williamson said that things were not even as bad as 1968, and he is a NeverTrumper.
Either the Republic hangs in the balance (notice, BTW, the capital “R” – I am a patriot, you know), or it does not. If it does, Clinton poses an equal or greater risk of destroying it.
But, that is a difference of opinion right? National Review can decide that Trump has to lose. Ergo, Clinton has to win. I have you down here, Fred, as wanting Clinton to win, because that is what it takes to stop Trump.
See, I think that will destroy the Republic (capital “R”). Too bad National Review is going to help that happen.
Of course. So what? I objected to your contention that the rest of us had some obligation to move toward the Orange One – that it works “both ways.” That’s BS. It doesn’t. If he wants my vote, he earns it by, at a minimum, having half a clue what he’s talking about, treating people with human decency, not sounding like a raving fascist ready to execute his political opponents the minute he gets into office and, if we’re really lucky, adopting the occasional free market or liberty oriented position. Until he does so, bring on Hillary. She’s awful, but not Trump awful.
I get it. But there’s a difference between being a weak kneed ally and just plain joining the other team. We’ve now got a nominee who’s trying to get to the left of not only Hillary Clinton, but Bernie Freakin’ Sanders, the only declared socialist in the US Congress.
At least you are honest you would rather see Clinton elected. So few NeverTrumpers will be honest with that. I salute you.
I have said so repeatedly. I would strongly prefer better options, and will be voting for Gary Johnson. But of the “Big 2” there is no question I prefer Hillary.
Bryan, I find your constant attempts to smoke out NeverTrumpers into confessing to be Hillary supporters to be very distasteful.
I am not planning on voting for Trump, and I am not planning on voting for Hillary. That does not make me a closet or open Hillary supporter.
And I don’t even hold your character in contempt for it.
Of course, many of the NeverTrump Crowd thinks I am a sellout for voting for Trump.
Of course, I would rather vote for Clinton than Johnson, because she thinks WWII was something we needed to be involved in, and Johnson is not so sure.
I don’t consider myself a Hillary “supporter” either. Recognizing the better of two bad options is not the same as liking it.
Duplicate post.
If they’d fought that hard against the Democrats, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Trump wouldn’t have won the primaries to have a majority of committed delegates.
The NeverTrumpers want the so-called “conscience rule” so the ringers they slipped in during state conventions can ignore the results of the primaries, open the nomination, and steal it for one of their guys. Sorry, not a whole lot of sympathy for them, this time.
I don’t doubt that for some, but for others this is all sour grapes.
You mean like a lot of folks here on Ricochet who were calling him a clown and his supporters Nazis? Pot calling kettle, come in kettle.
There wasn’t a #NeverRomney movement or a #NeverMcCain movement. In those cases there were other Republican candidates who lost, but there was nothing like this year.
This goes well beyond sour grapes. This man is unfit for office, dangerously so.
Yes, I called Trump a clown. I still think he’s a clown and unfit to be president. What of it? I never called his supporters Nazis. I did write a post that I was concerned that some of his supporters were white supremacists and members of the Klan. What of that? Was that not factual?
And Clinton is only going to stub the republic’s toe? Look Trump very likely will do damage to the country but it is fixable. Clinton wants to continue the path of socialism Obama put us on. Believing Trump is worse than Obama is just delusional.
[Redacted] I wouldn’t waste time on you Never Trumpers. I would make a play for the 98% of America who doesn’t read NR and the Bernie Supporters who aren’t voting Hillary.
Your opinion. Bold text doesn’t change that. There are a higher percentage of sour grapes NeverTrumpers than racist Trump supporters.
Try to keep it civil. No one has attacked you.
Maybe for you, but I can just tell that there are so many sour grapes out there. I can here it in the voice of certain podcasters and some of the reasoning they give. Trump is no more unfit than Hillary with the exception that she is an Alinsky-ite where as Trump is just an idiot.
Any candidate who privileges foreign criminals over law-abiding Americans and refuses to secure our borders and preserve our sovereignty is unfit for office. Dangerously so.