Calls are mounting to wrestle the Republican nomination from Donald Trump at the party’s convention in Cleveland this summer and you guessed it, “Never Trumpers” are leading the charge.
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt warned listeners Wednesday that Trump would lead to “Waterloo” level losses for the Republican Party as he read off his summary of the morning headlines, the Los Angeles Times reported. ‘Bigot, bigot, bigot. Racist. Racist Racist… We are going to get killed.”
“The Republican National Committee needs to step in and step up and talk to him about getting out of the race,” Hewitt said told listeners on his Hugh Hewitt Show.
Talk is growing to change the rules at the Republican convention to ensure Trump is defeated there. Steve Deace, a Republican radio host, tweeted Wednesday night that state delegates were reaching out to him personally to see how they could stop Trump.
And the 9th state of delegates wanting to revolt against Trump just reached out to me. And it’s only Wednesday.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) June 9, 2016
The crew of conservative Never Trumpers had seemed to have lost steam in recent weeks since Trump clinched the nomination and appeared to make nice with the RNC and Capitol Hill leaders. But Trump’s repeated inferences that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel couldn’t be impartial in a case against Trump University because of his “Mexican” background, has revived Never Trump.
AJ Spiker, a former Iowa Republican Party chairman, tweeted earlier this week that it was time for an alternative to step up.
The Republican Party needs a patriot to step forward, challenge Trump, work delegates and win the GOP nomination for president in Cleveland
— AJ Spiker (@AJSpiker) June 7, 2016
Republican leaders signaled this week they were distancing their party from Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comment “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Mitch McConnell firmly scolded it was time for Trump to “get on message.”
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) pulled his tenuous support for Trump, and Gov. Scott Walker signaled he may walk away as well.
“He’s not yet the nominee,” Walker said according to WKOW-TV. “That won’t happen until the middle of July and so for me that’s kind of the time frame that, in particular, I want to make sure he renounces what he says – at least in regards to this judge.”
Conservative leader Erick Erickson said Wednesday that the Curiel comments had sparked hope within the Never Trump movement once again.
“There is a rapidly moving train toward the convention to try to obstruct it at the convention. Trump in the last 72 hours has given hope to people who think it’s now possible,” Erickson said according to Yahoo News.
So far, the Never Trump movement has floundered at every turn. No one was able to organize and stop Trump from winning the Republican nomination in the first place. And after news circulated that conservatives might put forward their own alternative to Trump their suggested candidate, writer David French, backed out.
The latest calls suggest little more than residual heartburn within the conservative movement over Trump’s rise. That doesn’t mean Never Trumpers will stop scheming, however.
North Dakota delegate Curly Haugland – a longtime Republican committeeman–has peddled this idea that delegates at the convention could technically vote for whoever they want on the convention floor. In his new book “Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate,” Haugland argues that GOP party officials are wrong, there is no such thing as a bound delegates.
“If Haugland is right, and he is on the rules committee after all, then not a single GOP delegate is bound to vote for Trump as the Republican nominee,” Deace wrote in a Conservative Review column. “Especially given that Trump’s politics and character make him a far better standard bearer for the Democrats.”
