Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty Images
CLEVELAND — A pivotal meeting of the RNC's convention Rules Committee was interrupted on Thursday due to an alleged "printer jam."
The "printer jam" then provided cover for RNC officials, pro-Trump forces, and anti-Trump delegates to negotiate in private.
The RNC and Trump forces are attempting to strike a deal with anti-Trump delegates in Cleveland ahead of Friday's pivotal votes on convention rules. The worry among RNC officials and pro-Trump forces is that the anti-Trump delegates will change rules that require delegates to vote for the presumptive nominee.
The anti-Trump forces were well represented on Thursday morning: Sen. Mike Lee, a member of the Rules Committee who has vociferously criticized Trump and refused to endorsed him, entered a conference room in the convention center where the Rules Committee meeting is being held. Inside the room was former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who is pushing his own proposals that would diminish the RNC chair's power and alter the nominating process, and Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate and leader in the Free the Delegates movement that is seeking to allow delegates to vote their conscience. Lee, who is considered a potential supporter of Unruh's "conscience clause" proposal that would enact a rules change allowing delegates to vote their conscience, declined to speak to reporters on his way in.
RNC chairman Reince Priebus also reportedly joined the meeting, along with other RNC officials like general counsel John Ryder, though reporters staking out the meeting did not witness Priebus going inside. Asked if Priebus attended, national committeeman Bruce Ash, who is also trying to quell anti-Trump forces, said, "I can't help you but I will say I've talked to him a lot in the past day." And another delegate confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Priebus was in the meeting.
Meanwhile, members of Trump's campaign staff lingered nearby. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort told reporters he was "not worried at all" about the anti-Trump plan in question, as he walked toward the lower floor of the convention center. The anti-Trump delegates are trying to secure 28 votes to would send the measure — a clause that would allow delegates to vote their conscience — to the convention floor. Manafort stopped to huddle with RNC spokesman Sean Spicer, and then entered a conference room where he was later joined by spokesman Jason Miller.
The printer jam ruse caused the Rules Committee to be called into recess until 1 p.m., meaning the two sides have a limited amount of time to come to an agreement. Lee was seen leaving the meeting around 12:20 p.m.
As of last night, Unruh told BuzzFeed News she was still confident about the minority report. "I know I have the 28 votes," she said in an email. And reached by phone on Thursday, a Free the Delegates source said he was feeling good about what was happening in the room.
But doubts have emerged about how much support Unruh really has for the measure, especially as it has emerged that the RNC has enacted a whip operation — in other words, people actively working to get delegates to vote a certain way — against the proposal. The RNC is projecting a confident stance on the issue, with RNC spokesman Sean Spicer telling reporters "the numbers aren't there" on Thursday.
"Look these guys just gathered here, it's an opportunity for some of them to sit down for the first time and have a conversation with each other about how to move forward," Spicer said of the meeting.
Unruh told BuzzFeed News in a text message on Thursday, as the meeting was ongoing, that her conscience clause was not being negotiated over in the meeting. "This has nothing to do with unbinding," Unruh said. "Or the conscience clause."
And Graham Hunt, one of the delegates in the meeting, told reporters it was a discussion between grassroots activists and not about unbinding delegates. "This isn't a meeting of free the delegates," he said. "I think it's been a great meeting and will further the progress that's going to be done."
It appears that Cuccinelli's proposals, which would have the effect of empowering grassroots conservatives next election cycle, could be a way for the RNC to appease some anti-Trump delegates in lieu of them abandoning their efforts to unbind delegates.
"I have a pleasant smile on my face, read that as you may," said Morton Blackwell, a Cuccinelli ally and fellow Ted Cruz supporter who also attended the meeting.
Cuccinelli himself declined to comment as he left the meeting.
As the hours stretched on on Thursday, dozens of reporters joined the stakeout as delegates came in and out of the meeting room, all refusing to comment on what was going on inside.
via BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/29RAeuT
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