Donald Trump’s Iowa co-chair and campaign adviser Sam Clovis said Friday that he would “leave the Republican Party forever” if the GOP “jimmies the rules” against his candidate in a contested convention.
“These guys will be sitting there stewing on the floor of the convention in Cleveland and will have to figure out if whether they want on the train or end up under the train. It’s up to them,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Clovis said that if he’s chosen as a delegate for Iowa voters at the convention, he would follow “the will of the people.” He then threatened to leave the GOP “forever” if “the will” wasn’t followed.
“I will tell you this: If the Republican Party comes into that convention and jimmies with the rules and takes away the will of the people, the will of the Republicans and the Democrats and the independents who have voted for Mr. Trump, I will take off my credentials, I will leave the floor of that convention, and I will leave the Republican Party forever,” Clovis said.
Anchor Alisyn Camerota then pointed out that Trump himself suggested fudging the rules, in addition to suggesting there’d be “riots” if he didn’t get the nomination. Trump had said Wednesday on “New Day” that if “we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically.”
Clovis said Trump wasn’t calling for a rule change with those comments, which he said were in-line with “the graciousness and unity” of the party.
“I don’t think that’s jimmying with the rules. The rules are the rules,” he said. “And If we get close, the tradition of the Republican Party has been that the person who has come the closest is normally—the graciousness and unity of the party is important. If a person doesn’t get to the 1,237 threshold, there are rules and the rules ought to be followed. I don’t think anybody is saying anything different.”
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