Donald Trump, in addition to just being a pretty awful human being, is also a near-70 year old crybaby. He runs around talking about how the United States has “rules” and that we’re “not a country” if we don’t follow the rules (like having borders). The rules only matter to Donald Trump as long as those rules don’t get in the way of what he wants. If something does, then the process is “unfair.”
As Leon pointed out earlier today, the word “disenfranchise” is getting thrown around with respect to the possibility of Trump not winning the nomination. In Louisiana, team Trump has moved forward with a lawsuit, seeking to decertify Louisiana delegates. Trump has whined it is “unfair” that while he won the primary race, but that he did not get the most delegates. Ted Cruz did.
That hasn’t stopped the Trump campaign from filing this odd lawsuit and of course engage in conspiracy theories to boot:
After the Louisiana primary, the state GOP had its meeting to select delegates, under “Rule 6,” which says that this meeting will occur right after the state convention. The Trump campaign claimed that this meeting was held in secret, which is what gives it the legal justification for a challenge.
“Well the problem we’re having here is that there was a secret meeting in Louisiana of the convention delegation, and apparently all of the invitations for our delegates must have gotten lost in the mail,” Trump campaign official Barry Bennett said to MSNBC on Monday.
“There’s a process to deal with this. It’s in the certification process, and it’s been with our legal team for most of the morning now, and we are moving forward with the complaint to decertify these delegates,” Bennett went on.
However, Jason Dore, the chairman of the Louisiana Republican party, said that their meeting wasn’t secret and that, in fact, both of Trump’s state chairmen were in the room and present for the meeting.
Bennett later conceded to CBS News’ Major Garrett that there was a campaign official in attendance at the meeting – but only because Bennett got wind of it and that the party did not go through the proper channels to notify prospective delegates, therefore giving the challenge merit.
Sure, Barry.
This will continue as time goes on. As Susan pointed out, Marco Rubio has asked the California Secretary of State to have his name removed from the ballot in the primary that will take place there in June. There are a lot of delegates at stake in California and not having Rubio’s name on the ballot will likely help Ted Cruz. Watch for Trump and/or Trump people to complain about this loudly, especially if the CA SoS agrees.
The fact is, Trump is starting to get nervous. With Marco Rubio out of the race, polling on a state by state basis is starting to shift towards Ted Cruz. Cruz has moved ahead of Trump in the two latest polls taken in Wisconsin. A Marquette poll in February had Trump up by 10. In a recent LA Times poll of California, Cruz has moved into a statistical tie with Trump.
Naturally, Trump’s allies in the media are lending a hand by going along with the most wild of stories – that of the GOP plucking a “savior” out of nowhere at the convention. Fox flunkies, Jesse Watters and Eric Bolling are both floating the theory the “establishment cabal” is looking to “steal” the nomination from Trump by creating rules that would allow for Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney to be selected as the GOP nominee in July.
This is blithering nonsense. If Donald Trump arrives at the convention with 1,237 or more delegates, he will get the nomination. If he does not have that number, the convention becomes contested and the rules state a vote will be taken. If nobody gets 1,237 or more votes, a second vote is taken. It is that second that scares Donald Trump to death. If Ted Cruz is close and delegates are free to move to another candidate, they could very well move to Ted Cruz and he could emerge as the nominee.
And that is what the rules allow.
But that will not be good enough for Trump. This is why as time goes on, he will continue to complain about the process being “unfair.” He will do what he always does: Stomp his feet, whine, threaten lawsuits. tweet late at night and generally act like the buffoon that he is.
Trump doesn’t care about the Republican party or conservatism. This has always been about Donald Trump. No matter what happens between now and July, if Trump doesn’t reach the magic number of 1,237, he will do everything he can to convince his minions that he had the nomination in his stubby little hands and the “establishment” GOP took it from him. Whether he goes third party is another matter altogether.
But in order to get to that point, Trump, his spokespeople and his media friends will do all they can to delegitimize the process over the next several months in order to build the narrative, that the dastardly “establishment” can’t win “fairly” so they have to “steal” it.
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