Republican delegates scramble to ward off rules revolt
CLEVELAND — Republicans setting the GOP’s presidential nomination rules abruptly recessed for more than three hours on Thursday as top party leaders seek to thwart a revolt among delegates eager to revamp the GOP’s command structure and the process of nominating Donald Trump.
The RNC Rules Committee convened early Thursday to begin a cumbersome review of the party’s 42 rules on structure and the selection of a presidential candidate. But the panel took two breaks within the first hour as the chairwoman explained that “a printer jam” on the machine responsible for printing proposed amendments forced a delay.
Later, Enid Mickelsen, the former Utah congresswoman chairing the committee, said it would break until 1 p.m. to sort out technical issues and other matters.
The recess came as Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus were spotted arriving to observe the meetings.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and his wife, Sharon Lee — two key swing votes in the delegate “unbinding” debate — joined former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli and other delegates in a closed-door meeting down the hall from the committee.
Cuccinelli is leading a campaign to rewrite party rules in order to ban lobbyists from serving on the RNC and to take other powers away from Priebus. Another group wants to add rules language that would officially “unbind” delegates from the results of caucuses and primaries and allow them to vote however they want. Doing so would likely spark a floor fight next week — chaos that Republicans are eager to avoid.
Manafort told reporters that the Trump campaign is not worried about the possibility of enough committee members voting to produce a “minority report” of ideas rejected by the rules committee that would be introduced to the full Republican National Convention next week. He added that the campaign is “not involved” in ongoing negotiations.
Talks have been underway for weeks among RNC leadership and the anti-Trump “unbinding” delegates to ward off a fight that would earn outsize scrutiny from the world’s press corps as Trump announces his running mate and prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination.
While the group of renegade delegates insists that they have at least 28 votes on the committee to force a “minority report” proposing that delegates become unbound, RNC officials predict that the group will fall far short.
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