Anti-Trump GOP Delegates Negotiate Behind Closed Doors on Rules Revolt
The RNC Rules Committee broke abruptly for four hours today.
— -- CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It’s Cleveland intrigue. A closed door meeting, GOP delegates and last-minute negotiations with their presumptive nominee’s chief GOP rivals.
The RNC Rules Committee abruptly broke up for four hours Thursday, initially saying a broken printer had delayed the critical meetings. But, an important meeting is the real reason for the delay.
Delegates from around the country, joined by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, former Ted Cruz delegate wrangler Ken Cuccinelli and Kendal Unruh, the rules committee member spearheading the “Free the Delegates” movement huddled behind closed doors trying to negotiate a resolution to attempts by “Stop Trump” allies to unbind the convention delegates.
It was not immediately clear if the outcome of the meeting was good or bad for the anti-Trump forces.
A Republican source tells ABC News there was actually never a broken printer at all and it was all a ruse to try and get this time behind closed doors to work on a resolution to end the potential insurrection by anti-Trump delegates, as well as possible 2020 election concessions.
The rules panel gaveled back in at 1 p.m. after a four-hour delay.
Committee chair Enid Mickelsen told delegates that an "overloaded copier" did delay the meeting for about 10 minutes, but various groups were in negotiations this morning.
“Obviously we did not stand adjourned for three hours because of a jammed copier,” she told delegates. Anti-Trump leader Kendal Unruh later asked the chair, during the public meeting, how to ask for a recorded vote -- a signal that a vote on a rule to unbind the delegates could still be on the table.
The convention’s rules committee is a group of 112 delegates that will write the rules for the Republican convention. They began meeting on Thursday at 8 a.m. in downtown Cleveland to propose edits to the temporary rules that have been in place since 2012. They were supposed to meet all day on Thursday and likely go into Friday.
The anti-Trump forces, spearheaded by Colorado delegate Unruh, are trying to insert a rule that would let delegates vote for whomever they choose, giving the convention the chance to block Donald Trump’s nomination. The group was planning to propose its amendment during the rules panel meeting either today or Friday. A group of delegates can force a vote on the full convention floor if they submit a “minority report” -– a petition with the text of the amendment and the signatures of 28 rules panel members (a quarter of the committee’s membership).
Sean Spicer, communications director for the RNC, wouldn’t comment on the printer when asked directly if it was a ruse by ABC News, but told reporters “the numbers aren’t there for” a minority report. He added the meeting was merely to make sure "we have the greatest amount of unity coming out of this convention.”
“It’s an opportunity for some of them to sit down for the first time on how to move forward on the rules,” Spicer told a swarm of reporters after leaving the meeting.
Graham Hunt, delegate from Washington, described the meeting as “very positive” and “to get everything moving forward again.”
Representatives for "Delegates Unbound,” a group insisting that delegates may vote for the candidate of their choice as their party's presidential nominee, has representatives in the meeting.
Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who did not seem to be leaving or entering the meeting, but walked through where reporters were waiting said of the meeting: "This is between them and the RNC, we are not involved.”
On the closely-watched Trump veepstakes selection, he would only say: "The decision will be announced tomorrow" and on whether Trump has made a decision "I haven't spoken to him today."
And finally when asked about the effort to unbind the delegates here at the rules committee, Manafort said he's “not worried at all" and "There will be no minority report on that."