He gave them Drumpf. Maybe there is a God?
4-in-10 GOP insiders want to derail Trump at the convention'
I will work to push through any rule necessary to deny Trump the nomination...the only way to save the GOP is to have this fight,' said one delegate.
By Steven Shepard
06/10/16 05:21 AM EDT
After a rocky start to his general-election campaign, a sizable number of GOP insiders want the party to change the rules to short-circuit Donald Trump’s nomination at the July national convention.
Nearly four-in-10 Republican members of The POLITICO Caucus — a panel of activists, operatives and strategists in 10 key states — would like to see changes that could deny Trump the party’s nod after the presumptive nominee began the November campaign without a credible campaign structure, in addition to making a series of erratic and inflammatory comments. Among the comments was a recent suggestion that an American-born judge presiding over a civil suit in which he is a defendant can’t be impartial because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.
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A number of GOP insiders pointed to Trump’s drag on Republicans down the ballot as evidence of the necessity of replacing him with another candidate. Republicans have a four-seat majority in the Senate that would be in jeopardy if the party loses the White House, and the party is looking to maintain most of its larger, more durable majority in the House.
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But just as many GOP insiders said maneuvering to deny Trump the nomination after he has earned the requisite number of delegates would be even worse for other Republican candidates.
“Rules are rules, and the blowback from that will do more damage to the down ballot in every state more than we can calculate — more than a massive Trump loss at the top would do,” said a Florida Republican. “We have the ability and means to run separately, but not if rules are changed after he was won the nomination under current rules.”
“Republicans can't do anything to hurt Trump now without knee-capping our other GOP candidates up and down the ballot,” added a Virginia Republican. “It would be like Coca-Cola admitting that Coke Classic is toxic and expecting it not to hurt the sales of Diet Coke. For better or worse, we're all in this together now.”
The most significant reason to squash any anti-Trump movement, insiders said, was to avoid alienating his supporters.
“We are screwed either way but more screwed if we ignore the millions of people that voted for him,” said a New Hampshire Republican.
“Look, he won the nomination,” a Virginia Republican added. “Let him have it. But Republicans should have nothing to do with him or his campaign. Walk away. Let him lose, in spectacular fashion, on his own.”
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