Once Donald Trump reached the necessary number of delegates to win the Republican nomination outright, it was always improbable he could be replaced as the GOP’s nominee at the Cleveland convention.
Now, a new report from CNN reveals those chances just got a lot slimmer. The RNC Rules Committee –the body tasked with setting the nomination rules at the convention–is stocked full of party stalwarts who have shown little interest in the past in bucking the rules and giving delegates the chance to vote for whoever they like –unbinding them– on the first ballot.
Without a major change, it is hard to imagine how Trump would ever lose his nomination despite some calls to unseat the unpredictable nominee.
One rules committee member, Virginia National Committeeman Morton Blackwell, told CNN that unbinding delegates on the first ballot was little more than wishful thinking at this point.
“My father used to say, ‘Anyone can get his name in the newspapers if he’s willing to take his pants off in public,'” Blackwell told CNN. “So there’s going to be coverage of it, but it’s fantasy to think any of these rules are going to be changed.”
The rules committee will meet to set up the rules for officially selecting the Republican nominee. The rules will be voted on and require a 57-person majority, according to CNN. Then, they will be approved on the floor at the convention by delegates.
Still, advocates for unbinding delegates say they plan to keep pushing. We will see how that goes.
