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Delegates Launching 'Anything but Trump' Movement for Convention
Saturday, June 18, 2016 12:31 PM
By: Sandy Fitzgerald
Republican convention delegates are coming together with a new plan to block Donald Trump's nomination as fears climb that his views are not conservative and that his temperament is not suitable to successfully campaign against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
"This literally is an 'Anybody but Trump' movement," Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate leading the campaign, told The Washington Post. "Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we're not worried about that. We're just doing that job to make sure that he's not the face of our party."
The organized effort is underway as Trump's poll numbers drop and following a spate of controversial statements in recent weeks, including his attacks on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage; his revived calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country following the Orlando shootings; and his support for changing national gun control laws.
The anti-Trump movement kicked off its efforts on Thursday with a conference call involving at least 30 delegates from 15 states, and Unruh and fellow Colorado delegate Regina Thomson have brought in coordinators in Arizona, Louisiana, Iowa and Washington, among other states.
The delegates believe that there are enough Republicans to back their efforts to change the party rules, which would then allow them to vote for the candidate of their choice at the Cleveland convention, no matter who won in the nation's primaries.
And while many of the delegates who are involved in the push, backed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz while he was still in the race, they say that the push isn't about any particular candidate, but about blocking Trump from being the face of the Republican Party.
Further, they are not alone with their opposition to Trump, as many prominent Republicans, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are saying they can't support his bid for the presidency.
Even House Speaker Paul Ryan, who took nearly a month after Trump became the presumptive nominee to say he supports him, has shown many doubts, and says in a "Meet the Press" interview airing Sunday that other House Republicans should follow their conscience on whether to back Trump.
Further, the post reports, Ryan's use of the word "conscience" could help the anti-Trump
delegates if they push a "conscience clause" to unbind delegates, reports The Post.
Trump says he's not worried about the plots, as he has already won about 14 million votes, the largest of any Republican party candidate in history, and gets the biggest crowds at his rallies.
What's more, he said, a "never Trump" move would be "totally illegal," and candidates he already defeated in the primaries will do whatever they can to get a second shot at the nomination.
Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer also played down the push, calling discussion about the RNC Rules Committee eventually undermining Trump "silly."
"There is no organized effort, strategy or leader of this so-called movement," said Spicer. "It is nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets."
