Posted on 04/18/2016 6:51:06 PM PDT by Kaslin
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said "there's no room for threatening the delegates or the convention or anybody that would be going to our national convention," but he passed off much of that talk as "rhetoric and hyperbole."
Priebus told NBC on Sunday that, as Donald Trump calls the delegate-selection process rigged, "I don't know what the motivation is."
"There's really nothing that's rigged or being changed or altered. These are the same rules that were in place basically for over a century," he said. "But, at the very least, there's no way around the fact that all of these states submitted their delegate allocation plans by October 1st of 2015. And not a single thing has changed about it."
"These conventions that people talk about, number one, it's not common but a few states out West use a convention system, where delegates start competing at the county level a month ago and they go through the county, the precinct, the congressional district and a state convention. And the candidates participate the whole way through. And no one was complaining except for when it was all over," Priebus continued.
"And, look, every state is different. And to -- you can reform the system. I mean, look, we've all -- we -- this has been an ongoing debate."
The chairman stressed that "the RNC doesn't write any rules."
"The RNC has basically an administrative role at the convention. It's by majority rule the delegates can run the convention. So it's on them to decide what they want to do about a lot of these issues, not us," he said.
"...The voters empower the delegates. But ultimately the delegates, who, in most cases are bound by the outcome of caucuses and primaries and conventions, make the decisions at the convention."
Priebus added that if Trump "was winning the majority of votes, he'd likely have the majority of delegates -- but that's not actually what's happening."
"He's winning in plurality of votes. And he has a plurality of delegates. And under the rules, and under the concept of this country, a majority rules on everything. A majority rules on the electoral college. Majority rules at the DNC, the RNC and I don't know too many places where a majority doesn't rule," he said.
Asked if he'll let Trump bully him and "cave to his demands," the chairman replied that "the rules are set."
"I've been pretty clear," Priebus added. "I think I've done more TV in the last two weeks than I have in two years and it's because I'm not going to allow anyone to rewrite the rules of our party."
Trump's recent warning to the RNC: "You better straighten out the system, because the people want their vote. The people want to vote. And they want to be represented properly."
Priebus responded on CNN that "it's not a matter of party insiders -- it's a matter of 2,400-plus grass-roots activists, and whatever they want to do, they can do. And that's where the power lies."
He told CBS: "If they want to have 100 percent of everything they want to have happen, they have to be 100 percent committed to each of these states and how they select delegates."
"We are going to have plenty of security, plenty of protection for all the delegates," added Priebus. "We will be prepared. It will be a great convention. It will be an historic convention."
“...and drawn all eyes on the GOPe convention rules to prevent them from pulling a fast one without consequence.”
It’s too late.
The delegate make the rules, the delegates are mostly anti-trump.
Ahh. They will be re-written when President Trump say to Rince........................”Your Fired. Get ‘em outta here.”
Go Trump
This is double speak. The rules of the party SAY that the rules can be rewritten by the rules committee anytime they want.
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For the NATIONAL CONVENTION, not the State processes, each state determines their own process. It has been this way for many years prior to precious whiner trump getting involved.
These detestable party f*cks need to be put out of work.
They are tone deaf and arrogant in the extreme.
He may be referring to rule 30 which gives the Convention Chairman almost dictatorial powers under the “US House of Representatives rules” that the Convention operates under. Some delegates want to change to “Roberts Rules of Order” which gives the delegates more power.
Oh well that’s better. The states can do what ever they want and then at the national convention the rules committee can do anything they want with the states results. Sounds pretty logical to me...
Why would one say the rules have not changed for a century and then say the rules for each state for this cycle were submitted on time in August?
The rules of course are often changed between cycles. But why would they be changed if they have established themselves to be so fair they are beyond criticism?
step down prick oh i mean priebus
but only with the acceptance of the majority of delegates.
At the rate the GOPe is going, it'll be "historic" for sure.
...as in "historic" last time they have one because the party will destroy itself by its own corruption or all those voters they've been defrauding for all these years will simply walk away.
My vote is ALL OF THE ABOVE.
i read that.... Prince is crappin’ himself right now...
Virtually no Trump supporters showed up at our County Convention to become delegates to the State Convention where the delegates to the National Convention will be chosen.
Eventually, somebody has to do work.
Appears that Colorado RNC colluded with Cruz back in 2015 to stop vote which is disenfranchisement.
Revealed: Colorado Lawmakers Who Voted to Scrap Election Are Ted Cruz Delegates
Social media posts, along with Cruz’s campaign website, reveal that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97%
supporters in the Colorado Republican Party were responsible for crushing an effort to give Colorado the ability to vote in a state primary.
In May of 2015, four Colorado Senate Republicans killed an initiative “to create a presidential primary in 2016,” reported the Denver Post. “Under the bill, Colorado would have held a presidential primary in March that ran parallel with the state’s complicated caucus system… when it came before the Senate Appropriations Committee, four Republicans voted to kill the bill with three Democrats supporting it.”
The four Republicans who voted against the initiative were Sen. Kevin Grantham, Sen. Kent Lambert, Sen. Laura Woods, and Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg.
On Cruz’s campaign website, Sens. Woods, Grantham, and Lambert are all listed as Cruz supporters and as declared members of Cruz’s “Colorado Leadership team.”
This is huge.
The editors go on to suggest that Party leaders may have had “other agendas that remain undisclosed” for rejecting a primary election of the people. The editors write: an “opportunity to move Colorado out of its antiquated presidential caucuses has been lost through miscommunication, timidity or, perhaps, because of other agendas that remain undisclosed.” They continue, “The caucuses guarantee lackluster voter participation and the disproportionate influence of activists on both ends of the political spectrum who are not representative of the parties’ mainstream. Some romanticize the caucus system as the purest form of grass-roots democracy, but that’s only accurate if your idea of democracy involves excruciatingly low turnout — by design.”
Following Cruz’s “voterless victory,” the state senators who had killed the primary election initiative seemed effusive.
Did Cruz campaign collude with CO RNC to disenfranchise Colorado voters?
Priebus needs to realize that many people make up this Party. He says Our Party like he owns it. Not so fast. Did Cruz collude to disenfranchise Colorado voters to stop the election? If so, how can anyone support a sitting US Senator who works toward suppressing voter opinion? i
This goes beyond campaign strategy and is now about voter suppression and disenfranchisement by the Cruz camp
Funny, he didn’t seem to have a problem with it last time, when the rules were changed to prevent Ron Paul from dropping truth bombs on the convention about the party embracing big government and straying from the Constitution.
No one should be allowed to change any rules in order to allow someone who does not have a majority of delegate votes to be our nominee.
To demand that the person with the most delegates be the nominee, despite more than half of the delegates voting for another candidate is political suicide. Unfortunately that is the argument coming from some sources, who would like to “change the rules.”
Bill Clinton won the Presidency in 1992 with a plurality of the popular vote (43%). In the next election cycle a lot of those who voted for Ross Perot stayed home, and again Clinton won with a plurality of the popular vote.
Hitler got no more than 36% of the vote in Germany in 1932, but because of turmoil and dissent, eventually came to power.
If we do not unite behind one candidate (the one with a majority of delegate votes), will we be faced with a Socialist coming to power with a plurality, and then, like Clinton and Obama, that person declaring their election as a mandate from the people to overthrow our Constitution and change our Republic?
A double chinned two faced cowardly slack jawed bone smuggler.
This utter wimp is a complete Delta India Charlie Kilo. The RNC should see if they can find another putz with an even more pretentious~sounding name.
Link to article is must read and connects the dots with CO politicians who are both cruz supporters and now Cruz delegates who had power and voted to disenfranchise voters This is a huge story and potentially implicates Cruz as a sitting Senator with plotted to disenfranchise voters in the CO primary.
Would not be surprised if some CO residents filed a lawsuit against Cruz for coordinating a campaign to stop Trump supporters and any voter for that matter for voting in an actual primary.
If one wishes to defend the rules as fair, it is no use saying that they are fair because they are the rules, or have been the rules since August, or any such non sequitur.
If a public case can be made that the rules were changed to help defeat Trump in mind, then bringing that out in the open and shining public sunshine on it is the only remedy available to something that was not just. And hopefully the effort will backfire hard enough to discourage such nonsense in the future.
But they sure like to bitch
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