Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president but some conservatives say the process that got the party to this point was another example of the Republican National Committee flouting their own rules in a grab for even more power.
Three major moments frustrated these conservatives, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. First, the RNC rules committee rejected an amendment to the convention rules to allow delegates to vote their conscience. Next, came Monday’s floor showdown, when the majorities of well more than the needed seven states demanded a roll call vote on the final rules package.
That request was ignored and the presiding officer passed the rules on a simple voice vote.
Cuccinelli is incensed.
“If you look back to 2012, they did the same thing, They broke their own rules to trample the grassroots,” said Cuccinelli, referring to a rule change at the convention that made Ron Paul ineligible to be nominated. “The divisiveness they introduced was tremendous. Here they go and do it again.”
The official RNC explanation was that lobbying by GOP leaders and the Trump campaign convinced enough states to withdraw their push for a roll call vote so that there was not enough support to proceed.
Cuccinelli says that’s patently false.
“What they said from the stage was not accurate in terms of the number of states that filed petitions. Ten filed petitions. You only need seven,” said Cuccinelli. “Ten were filed. Eleven were brought up, but the gentleman from Alaska , Fred Brown, was physically blocked by security from turning in Alaska’s petitions,” said Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli stresses that the work in the rules committee and pushing for a roll call vote was not part of some Never Trump effort. He says some Trump supporters were with them.
“It wasn’t just Cruz delegates. We had Kasich and Trump representation in the coalition and we had people who hadn’t endorsed anybody in the primary. We were all working together to put together a package of conservative grassroots rules that would decentralize power in the Republican Party, empower the grassroots and fix some of the things that Donald Trump himself said were rigged parts of the system that he was right about,” said Cuccinelli.
Ultimately, the Trump campaign sided with RNC leaders to quash the conscience amendment.
The next flap occurred during the nomination vote on Tuesday as delegates committed to other candidates were frustrated their votes were being assigned to Trump. The RNC ruled that once all other candidates are out, bound delegates are automatically counted in the tally for the remaining candidate.
Cuccinelli says while some state rules do have that provision, that decision was also wrong for other states.
“Utah didn’t have a rule like that. I’m not aware of Alaska having a rule like that. so they inappropriately moved votes from one candidate to another,” he said.
Cuccinelli calls the heavy-handed rules plays “dumb” because the pro-Trump forces would have won all the votes anyway. He calls these moments an “embarrasment” for RNC chairman Reince Priebus.
“It’s really petty, tyrannical, vindictive leadership from Priebus and the RNC. It’s just more establishment power-grabbing at the expense of the RNC,” said Cuccinelli.
While he will vote for Trump, Cuccinelli says the RNC is not helping efforts to unify the party by regularly thumbing its nose at the grassroots. He also says it turns the GOP into hypocrites when attacking Hillary Clinton.
“This is the party that is out there publicly prosecuting Hillary Clinton for being above the law and they’re above their own rules,” said Cuccinelli.
