Trump campaign confident the party platform and rules will pass on Monday
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 2016 Republican National Convention | |
July 18-21, 2016 Location Cleveland, Ohio | |
President Donald Trump Vice President Mike Pence | |
2016 Convention Rules • Rule 12 • Rule 16 • Rule 40 • Conscience clause • Brokered conventions • RNC Rules Committee • Platform and Platform Committee • RNC Standing Committee on Rules • Republican National Committee | |
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In concert with the release of the convention program, Jeff Larsen, CEO of the 2016 Republican National Convention, and Paul Manafort, chairman of the Trump campaign, held the convention’s first official press briefing Sunday evening. Manafort spoke to the Trump campaign’s goals for the event and how he anticipated the convention’s first business session on Monday afternoon to unfold. During Monday’s business session, delegates will finalize the party’s platform and ratify the results of last Thursday’s contentious Rules Committee meeting.
The lineup of speakers for the convention landed in press inboxes minutes before the briefing began. It includes some of Trump’s former rivals, such as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz—neither of whom have fully warmed up to Trump—campaign surrogates such as Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, and Ben Carson, family members, a few celebrities, and what Manafort called “ordinary Americans.”
When pressed on why the speaking lineup seemingly featured less of a celebrity presence than Trump had previously touted, Manafort said that was intentional. The convention’s purpose, he noted, was to introduce “Donald Trump the man” and let voters get to know “the breath of the man himself.” People who know Trump personally and how he operates, Manafort stated, are the best way to accomplish these goals.
Manafort hailed the results of Thursday night’s marathon Rules Committee meeting, where 112 delegates convened to set the rules that will govern the 2016 convention. From 8:00 a.m. to 11:31 p.m., the committee members debated—passionately, at times—an often arcane set of rules that have come to play an outsized role in this year’s nominating season. At the center of the night’s proceedings was a rules amendment offered by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh that would have allowed delegates to vote their conscience “on all matters” at the convention, essentially unbinding them and permitting delegates bound to Trump to vote for alternative candidates or abstain. The amendment's brief time on the committee floor represented something of a culmination point for a months-long effort aimed at denying Trump the party's nomination. But Unruh’s amendment failed in a voice vote, while pro-Trump delegates, working alongside the RNC, pushed through other rules to reinforce the binding of delegates. Manafort stated that the anti-Trump elements of the committee had been “crushed” and “overwhelmingly rejected.”
The July 14 meeting of the 2016 Rules Committee.
The rules package approved on Thursday night heads to the convention floor on Monday afternoon, where it will need the approval of a majority of the delegates in order to become the convention’s official rules. Manafort stated he was confident the rules will be approved. When asked if Trump could still win even if the delegates were unbound, Manafort appeared confident. “Of course he’s going to win. This is a Trump convention, of course he would win,” said Manafort, noting that the “party is unified” and anti-Trumpers are just a “few people holding out.”
The Trump campaign also anticipates swift passage of the party platform, and Manafort was quick to point out that the document features the “distinctive impact of Donald Trump.” He noted planks in the platform that, he argued, reflected Trump’s stances on international trade, tax policy, and regulations on the financial industry. He tempered the Trump campaign’s take on the platform slightly in response to a question about inviting Peter Thiel, an openly gay tech executive, to speak at the convention and the 2016 Platform Committee’s rejection of same-sex marriage. Manafort called the Republican Party an “open-tent party” and said that Trump embraces “many aspects of the platform.”
Monday afternoon will prove whether or not Manafort and the Trump campaign’s confidence is well-placed. While there has been little talk of any movement against the platform by the delegates, the plans of the conservative anti-Trump movement are still unknown. They have the option of presenting to the convention delegates rules amendments such as the failed conscience clause in the form of a minority report, a rarely-used parliamentary procedure that would require backing from at least 28 members of the rules committee. Other forms of disruption are also possible, though the details of what could happen are scarce. Dane Waters, a founder of the group Delegates Unbound, told The Washington Post on Saturday, “Something is going to happen on Monday.”
We will find out what that means tomorrow.
See also
- The GOP establishment and Trump embrace
- RNC Rules Committee, 2016
- The Republican Platform and RNC Platform Committee, 2016
- Republican National Convention, 2016
- Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
