CLEVELAND – Anti-Trump delegates trying to cause the GOP nominee embarrassment on the floor of the convention in Cleveland lost in what may have been their last best chance make a symbolic stand against Donald Trump.
Trump foes said they had the signatures of a majority of the delegates from nine delegations to force a roll call vote on the convention’s rules.
However, when it became time to approve the rules, the officials presiding said that the three of those delegations had withdrawn their petition, and the rules were approved in a voice vote.
The scene on the floor was chaotic when the vote on the convention’s rules was called. The anti-Trump delegates, many of them clustered around the Virginia delegation, began chanting “Dump Trump,” only to be met by chants of “USA, USA.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) made a motion for a roll call vote, but it was announced that the movement had lost the three of the nine delegations it needed to force a vote.
RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told TPM via email that the anti-Trump forces only had the support of six state delegations in favor of forcing a roll call vote at the time of the rules vote. They were Washington state, Iowa, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming and Colorado. She said D.C., Minnesota and Maine had fallen below the required signatures before the vote and that Iowa dropped below the required signatures during the vote.
“They claim they had nine states but they really had six and then they lost one during the vote,” Walters said.
