Cuccinelli On Failed RNC Rules Change Push: 'This Was Disenfranchisement, Dare I Say'

Never Trump is dead. I mean we’ve known for quite a long time—ever since Trump clinched more than enough pledged delegates to win the Republican nomination. Nevertheless, people have their principles; no matter how often you tell them it’s over. Yesterday they tried to force a roll call vote on the rule of the convention, a foundation on which this segment of anti-Trump Republicans could move to unbound the delegates in a last ditch effort to dump Trump. It was the Battle of the Bulge for this group at the RNC—and they lost.

To force a vote for a change the rules of the convention, the majority of the delegates from seven states must sign on, the Never Trump camp had nine, though three states withdrew when it came down to execute this maneuver. They fell short. Guy has more:

Conservative opponents of Donald Trump said they'd secured signatures from the majorities of nine to eleven delegations, easily clearing the seven-delegation threshold required to trigger a convention-wide ballot. After vociferous protests from several GOP officials -- most notably Utah Sen. Mike Lee -- the chair vacated the podium for a span of several chaotic minutes. He returned with an explanation: A sufficient number of delegates from three states or territories had supposedly withdrawn their signatures from their roll-call-compelling petitions as to render the procedural move moot.

In other words, 'free the delegates' proponents allegedly no longer had the seven delegation majorities they needed to force a floor tally. A second voice vote was called on the adoption of the rules package adopted last week, and the 'ayes' were declared the winners.

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Katie added that the delegation from Iowa and Colorado walked out, with former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli throwing down his credentials on the convention floor in protest, storming out saying, “I am not doing this again!”

He spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper, where he said that the RNC was violating its own rules, and that this move was pretty much disenfranchisement.

“This was an opportunity for the grassroots to finally spread power out in the party unlike 2012 and instead, we had a redo of 2012. We had a chairman gaveling through people who legitimately obeyed the rules to get a roll call vote. This was disenfranchisement, dare I say,” he said.

It was an ugly, albeit brief moment of chaos that could’ve been avoided if the Never Trump crowd a) took Trump seriously and b) had a concerted strategy to defeat the billionaire starting in July of 2015. Even if the rules had been changed, who was Never Trump’s candidate, which would be a reason for trying to force this vote in the first place. Well, they didn't have one. It was a mess. Trump will become the nominee of the GOP after this week, and those who hated the man, but failed to stop need to learn the art of letting go.

At the same time, I do understand if these delegates wanted to have a recorded vote showing that they're Never Trump.