begin quote from:
- 3 hours ago ... Donald Trump and Ted Cruz warned fellow Republicans ... if the GOP establishment attempts to have a brokered convention this summer.
Donald Trump on brokered convention: 'I think you'd have riots'
Story highlights
- "I think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots," Trump said
- "I think that would be an absolute disaster. I think the people would quite rightly revolt," Cruz said
Washington (CNN)Donald Trump and Ted Cruz warned fellow Republicans Wednesday of dire consequences if the GOP establishment attempts to have a brokered convention this summer.
"I
think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots," Trump said Wednesday
on CNN's "New Day." "I'm representing a tremendous many, many millions
of people."
The
Republican Party veered closer to a contested convention Tuesday after
Ohio Gov. John Kasich won his home state and deprived Trump, the party's
front-runner, of its 66 delegates. That makes it more difficult for the
billionaire to reach the 1,237 delegates he needs to capture the GOP
prize without a floor fight.
In fact
one of Trump's supporters said there would be riots if Trump didn't win
the nomination at the convention, though riots themselves "aren't
necessarily a bad thing."
"If it means
because it's in there fighting the fact that our establishment
Republican party has gone corrupt and decided to ignore the voice of the
people and ignore the process," Trump supporter Scottie Neil Hughes
told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.
She
added, after being pressed specifically on the word "riot," "It's not
riot as in a negative thing like what we've seen in the past, it's the
fact that you have a large amount of people that will be very unhappy. I
don't think they would sit there and resort, in fact I know they would
not resort to violence, I know they would not do it. However, they would
make sure their voices are heard, that they can't be ignored."
Earlier Wednesday, Cruz said party leaders getting behind a brokered convention would be disastrous.
"I
think that would be an absolute disaster. I think the people would
quite rightly revolt. The way to beat Donald Trump is at the ballot
box," the Texas senator said on "New Day."
Contested convention? Trump's people have his back 01:44
"If
it ends up happening that we get to Cleveland and nobody has 1,237
delegates, that Donald has a whole bunch of delegates and I have a whole
bunch of delegates and we come in neck and neck, then it is up to
delegates to decide," he added.
Republican
National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer said Wednesday
that a chance for a brokered convention still remains.
"Of course. We're going
to let the process work itself out," he told CNN's Carol Costello. "So
from (an) RNC perspective, we're going to continue to prepare for all
contingencies including an open convention."
But Spicer doesn't think there will be literal riots if Trump is not allowed to be a nominee.
"I
assume he's speaking figuratively," he said. "I think if we go into a
convention, whoever gets 1,237 delegates becomes the nominee. It's plain
and simple."
Spicer added, "I think
Republicans will have a very orderly process. We'll vote in the open.
The delegates that are elected by Republican voters will go to
Cleveland. If we get to a point where there needs to be more than one
ballot, we'll do it in a very orderly and transparent way."
And Spicer dismissed the likelihood of a new candidate being introduced at a brokered convention.
"I
feel confident that the nominee of the this party will be one of the
remaining three individuals that is currently in the race," he said.
Despite Kasich's first win Tuesday night, Cruz said it makes no sense for the Ohio governor to remain in the race.
"It
is mathematically impossible for John Kasich to become the nominee. At
this point, he had lost 20 states before Ohio," Cruz said. "And so if
you actually want to defeat Donald Trump, there's only one campaign that
has done so over and over and over again. Nine different times all over
the country, we have beaten Donald Trump."
No comments:
Post a Comment