CLEVELAND — Republicans who failed to change party rules here last week and stop Donald Trump from winning the party’s nomination are threatening to cause chaos on the floor of the national convention. Bruised by the way party leaders handled debate on a series of proposed rules changes, leaders of anti-Trump groups vowed to find ways to draw at least some political blood Monday.
The options are limited and attempts to cause trouble at political conventions are usually quickly thwarted. But anti-Trump activists who spent weeks trying to play within the party structure now say they will do what Trump hates the most: Find a way to embarrass him.
“If they thought they were going to have the nice, unified kumbaya show, they just completely guaranteed they’re not going to have it,” vowed Kendal Unruh, a delegate from Colorado who led an anti-Trump group.
Thursday, Unruh and a small band of like-minded delegates failed in attempts to strip Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus of some of his authority and enact rules that would reopen the nomination fight. The RNC and the Trump camp banded together, agreeing to stop attempts to unbind delegates to the results of state caucuses and primaries.
“NeverTrump is never more,” Trump tweeted Friday. “They were crushed last night in Cleveland.”
One final option remains: Stay away. Some senior RNC officials worry that delegates might start leaving Cleveland before Trump is scheduled to ccept the nomination on Thursday night, possibly forcing the campaign to scramble to fill seats inside the Quicken Loans Arena. The lack of prominent speakers on most nights of the convention might also compel delegates to reconsider their plans.
But Manafort said that months of “conjecture” by Trump’s oppponents should give way to party unity.
“So now do you finally accept the fact that the ‘Never Trump’ is nevermore?” he asked. “Period. End of sentence.”
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