Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered this month in a Phoenix suburb, showing up to get to know each other and learn about their duties. Part of the presentation included a secret plan to throw the party’s nomination of Donald Trump for president into chaos.
The instructions did not come from “Never Trumpers” hoping to stop the party from nominating a felon when delegates gather in Milwaukee next month. They instead came from avowed “America First” believers hatching a challenge from the far right — a plot to release the delegates from their pledge to support Trump, according to people present and briefed on the meeting, slides from the presentation and private messages obtained by The Washington Post.
The delegates said the gambit would require support from several other state delegations, and it wasn’t clear whether those allies had been lined up. One idea, discussed as attendees ate finger foods, was for co-conspirators to signal their allegiance to one another by wearing matching black jackets.
Nobody knows exactly what they are trying to do but the speculation is that they want to influence the VP pick and are particularly interested in forcing Trump to choose Michael Flynn. You see, they think Trump has been getting too close to the “deep State and needs to be reined in.
I’m not kidding.
The Trump campaign rushed in to replace the rebel delegates with one staffer apparently telling various Republicans that they considered it an “existential threat” to the nomination. What???
In the end, Dear Leader managed to stave off the rebellion:
The campaign and the Arizona delegates reached an agreement that there would be no disruptions at the convention. Still, suspicions lingered about other state delegations, according to a campaign official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. He declined to elaborate.
The fracas exposed the challenges of choreographing next month’s convention in Milwaukee, where some 5,000 delegates and alternates will participate — many of them inclined toward the falsehoods and baseless accusations that animate many of Trump’s supporters.
How shocking that the same conspiracy-laden fools Trump is counting on electing him next fall might be thinking he’s part of the problem instead of the solution.
