CLEVELAND — The Trump campaign took another victory lap Sunday to celebrate its defeat of delegate rebellion that aimed to derail Donald Trump’s nomination on the convention floor.
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Paul Manafort, chairman of the Trump campaign, said during a news conference that he was pleased with the outcome of a vote in the convention rules committee late last week. Delegates aligned with the presumptive nominee and GOP Chairman Reince Priebus blocked an attempt to change party rules that could have made it easier to depose Trump, all but assuring a smooth nomination for him this week.
Manafort didn’t directly address the question of why Trump feared unbinding the delegates and allowing them to vote their conscience, saying simply that he saw no reason to change the rules at this late stage. Meanwhile, Manafort dismissed suggestions that the party remains divided over Trump.
“We were pleased about what happened in the rules committee [last] week, where the attempts to try and discredit the primary season and the votes of millions of Republicans and independents was rejected by the delegates overwhelmingly … it was crushed,” Manafort told reporters Sunday evening during a news conference to discuss the convention, which begins Monday. “This is a Trump convention. … The party is united.”
The anti-Trump delegates pushed a rule to unbind themselves from the winner of the Republican presidential candidate that won their state’s primary or caucus.
Republican National Committee rules bind delegates to vote that way on the first ballot on the convention floor, and in some cases on the second and third ballot.
By unbinding the delegates and permitting them to vote their conscience, the rebel delegates hoped to use suspicion of Trump among some of the delegates to halt his nomination. The move was always a long shot, but the Trump campaign and the RNC didn’t take any chances.
On Sunday, the rebel delegates were working on a new strategy to confront Trump’s nomination on the convention floor. Organizers declined to reveal their plans, citing concerns that the RNC and the Trump campaign could move pre-emptively to block them.
