Donald Trump on Friday flatly dismissed a report that dozens of GOP delegates are plotting to change the rules for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in order to prevent him from snagging the nomination.
The Washington Post reported that some delegates to the RNC were lobbying to change its rules to unbind delegates in order to prevent Trump from clinching the nomination. Trump released a statement to The Post, which he barred this week from getting press credentials for his events, calling the reported movement “totally illegal.”
“I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries,” Trump said in the statement. “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.”
While the newspaper reported it was delegates agitating for a rules change, Trump took a shot at his primary opponents, appearing to blame them for the campaign.
“People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot—but there is no mechanism for it to happen,” Trump said in his statement to the Post.
While the delegates agitating for the rules change know who they don’t want as their nominee, they don’t appear to have a replacement candidate in mind, either.
“This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign, told the Post. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”
