“Dump Trump” movement could hit dead-end before convention

Talks aimed at averting some battles at the Republican National Convention between GOP leaders and conservatives have broken down.

Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.

Party leaders have been hoping to prevent their four-day gathering from evolving into a nationally televised rebellion.

Though she’s sure to be defeated Friday at the convention rules committee, Unruh says she expects to win enough support that her plan would be brought to the full convention for a vote.

There was a private meeting with Sen Mike Lee of Utah, a member of the Rules Committee, Unruh and Ken Cuccinelli just let out, and a source from the Anti-Trump effort who was in the room, says they had a separate meeting but it was “not about the conscience clause” at all.

Both sides agreed that the bargaining broke down over an effort by conservatives to provide extra convention delegates to states with primaries closed to independent and Democratic voters, many of whom flocked to Trump in this year’s voting.

Jeff Kallam, the general manager for the Crazy Horse Cleveland strip club told The Daily Beast that in preparation for the convention, which lasts three days, the club has, “C$3 ancelled all vacations” (how lovely for anyone who works there who may want to avoid hoards of Republican patrons) and “ordered in extra stock of alcohol, food, everything”. They are also seeking to bar lobbyists from serving on the 168-member Republican National Committee – the party’s leadership from around the country – and to make other changes that could be seen as a slap at party leaders and have drawn their opposition. In another, the panel used a voice vote to defeat a plan to bar members of the RNC from being lobbyists – a profession that employs many of them in their home states – though it would have exempted lobbyists for nonprofit organizations.

In a gesture to conservatives, the rules panel voted to create a commission that by 2018 could propose changes to the GOP’s presidential nominating process, which came under intense fire this year. Anti-Trump forces are hoping to alter the rules governing the convention that would give Trump opponents more power on the floor of the convention.

“This impressive lineup of veterans, political outsiders, faith leaders and those who know Donald Trump the best – his family and longtime friends – represent a cross-section of real people facing the same challenges as every American household”, said Trump spokesman Jason Miller.

Besides a growing “whip” vote-counting operation, one official said the Trump campaign has assigned sympathetic delegates to ride herd on specific rebels in an effort to communicate and keep tabs on them.

If it is, it seems likely to lose.

Trump’s children and wife, along with a host of politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Texas Sen. That panel’s initial votes are expected to demonstrate how firmly Trump and GOP Chairman Reince Priebus control the convention, which meets in full next week.

Unruh said they have the right to vote “freely and openly without retribution”.