'Stop Trump' delegates lose floor fight but expose GOP divide
CLEVELAND — Anti-Trump delegates disrupted the opening day of the Republican National Convention on Monday in a futile effort to force a vote to change convention rules to allow them to cast votes for someone other than presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The effort showed that a vocal minority of convention delegates remain staunchly opposed to the presidential nominee the party is going to crown this week.
Convention officials briefly walked off the stage as anti-Trump delegates shouted "roll call vote!" and Trump supporters yelled back "We want Trump!"
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Officials ultimately denied dissidents' request, declaring that there was not enough support to justify a roll call vote of the state delegations. Their decision means that delegates must vote for Trump on the first ballot if Trump earned those delegates in the primaries. Delegates in about a dozen states wanted to vote for other candidates on the first ballot to show their opposition to Trump..
The short-lived chaos on the convention floor underscored that the Republican Party's effort to unite behind its often-divisive leader has fallen short.
"What I want is a roll-call vote, which is our right as delegates," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as he helped lead the anti-Trump effort by about a dozen states.
Lee, an outspoken Trump critic, blasted convention leaders for walking off the stage in the face of demands for the vote.
"I have no idea what's going on," the senator told reporters. "This is surreal."
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Many members of the Colorado and Iowa delegations reportedly walked off the convention floor after officials refused to allow the roll call vote.
A similar effort failed last week before the convention rules committee.
"Nobody should be coerced to vote for a candidate as dangerous and unprincipled as Donald Trump," said a statement from the #NeverTrump Team, a coalition of anti-Trump forces.
Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort downplayed the furor on the floor, telling CNN that "it's a convention," and "some people wanted to play politics with the rules."
He also noted that Trump forces would have easily won a roll-call vote.
"It would have been a meaningless gesture," Manafort told CNN.
David Chung, a delegate from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said the failure of the anti-Trump dissidents to force a vote was proof that "the house always wins."
Although he is a Trump supporter, Chung said he wanted a roll call vote because the voice vote in favor of the convention rules was not clear. He said the effort to force a vote was quashed by the RNC and the Trump organization.
"Their whips got out and got (some people) to take their names off the petitions" calling for a rules change, Chung said.
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a leading supporter of a roll call vote, threw his credentials to the floor and walked out, claiming party leaders rammed through the voice vote in favor of the convention rules.
"They just blatantly violated the rules," he told reporters.
George Ortiz, a delegate from Tolleson, Ariz., said the rules, drafted by the Rules Committee, should not be changed.
"It would’ve been chaos,” said Ortiz, 65, pointing out Arizona law and state GOP rules mandate that delegates vote their first ballot for Trump. "It’s good that it turned out the way it did."
Arizona delegate Kathy Petsas, who has some reservations about Trump, said she thought a roll call vote should have proceeded.
"It’s unfortunate that they can let the process play out like this,” said Petsas, of Paradise Valley. "They give more oxygen to the fight rather than just letting the process play out."
Mick Wright, 38, a digital communications coordinator at Youth Villages in Bartlett, Tenn. and a Cruz delegate, said “Everything else at this point is window dressing . . . this is the Trump show. So welcome to the Trump show; it’s the greatest reality show there’s ever been."
Contributing: David Jackson, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Deirdre Shesgreen, Duane Gang
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