http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/trump-delegate-fight-crooked-221789Trump blasts delegate fight as ‘crooked deal'
'What kind of a system is this?' the Republican frontrunner says, after being bested by Cruz in Colorado.
By Nick Gass
04/11/16 07:29 AM EDT
Donald Trump vented Monday over the delegate fight on which his campaign has been repeatedly outfoxed, slamming the situation in Colorado as a "crooked deal."
“Well it really started with Colorado, and the people out there are going crazy — in the Denver area and Colorado itself — and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote, this was given by politicians. It’s a crooked deal, and I see it," the Republican front-runner said in a telephone interview on "Fox & Friends," referring to his defeat over the weekend in the state where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won all 34 delegates at play at the state's Republican convention.
Referring to a comment from co-host Pete Hegseth explaining that the rules are the rules, Trump remarked, "Well that shouldn’t be the way it is. This was changed in the summer to help a guy like Cruz, and it’s not right now."
Colorado Republicans voted last August to cancel their traditional presidential preference poll after the Republican National Committee changed its rules to require states' delegates to support whomever wins the caucus.
In addition to losing Colorado, Trump has also suffered delegate setbacks in South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Georgia.
"You know, as an example, I won South Carolina. I won it by a landslide, like a massive landslide, and now they’re trying to pick off those delegates one by one. That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. And you know, they offer ‘em trips, they offer ‘em all sorts of things," Trump said. "And you’re allowed to do that, and you’re allowed to offer trips and you can buy all these votes. What kind of a system is this? Now, I’m an outsider and I came into the system, and I’m winning the votes by millions of votes. But the system is rigged, it’s crooked."
The "crooked" nature also extends to the Democratic side of the race, Trump suggested.
"And I see it, honestly, I see it with Bernie [Sanders], too. You know, I got millions more votes, millions, not just a couple — millions of more votes than Cruz," Trump explained. "And I’ve gotten hundreds of delegates more. And we keep fighting, fighting, fighting and then you have a Colorado where they frankly, where they just get all of these delegates, and it’s not a system. There was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything. There’s no voting."
He went on to lament Sanders’ situation even more. "When you look, even at Bernie—I’m not a fan of Bernie, but every time I turn on your show—Bernie wins, Bernie wins, Bernie wins. And yet he’s not winning," Trump said, alluding to Sanders' recent string of victories in primaries and caucuses that have done little to move the needle in terms of his delegate deficiency against Hillary Clinton. "I mean, it’s a rigged system. It’s a rigged system," he repeated.
Trump’s vent session comes after the Republican frontrunner remained relatively quiet over the weekend. In a rare move, he didn’t call into any of the Sunday shows, opting instead to keep a low profile as Cruz racked up more delegate wins.
But on Monday, Trump appeared ready to fight back, rejecting the notion that his defeats in Colorado and elsewhere suggests that Cruz's team is out-hustling and out-organizing his campaign.
“No, because I’ve got millions more votes. I mean, you could say he’s out-organized because I have millions of more votes, and I happen to have more delegates than he does, by a lot. But when you go into Colorado, where the people of Colorado are complaining that they’re not allowed to vote, that’s the best of all because they’re not even allowed to vote," he said, going on to invoke his victory in the popular vote in the Louisiana primary and subsequent delegate flop. "Hey, I’m somebody coming in to make America great again. I’m coming in to do something positive. I’m an outsider. The system’s rigged," he said, again invoking the term. "I see it. I see it now 100 percent. And by the way, not just on our side—I think it’s worse on the Republican side—when you can have a Colorado where people don’t get a chance to vote—and the people out in Colorado are going nuts. They’re marching, they’re having a lot of problems out there because of this. This was a political hack deal like so much of our country. This is what our country’s all about, I guess.”
Trump, whose name graces 17 golf courses around the world, also commented on Jordan Spieth, whose epic collapse on the back nine Sunday at the Masters denied the 22-year-old golfer a chance to repeat as the tournament champion.
"He's had a very life-altering experience. It looked like he was just going to sail right through," Trump said, not drawing any comparison to his own presidential run. "That's golf. It's a tough sport. That's life. That's golf. That's sports. That's everything. I mean, it can happen."