GOP Establishment Has a Plan to Take the Nomination Away from Trump and Cruz

Just days before a crucial primary in Wisconsin, Cruz is leading that swing state according to most polls. Ryun agreed with that consensus, handicapping the race at 36 delegates for Cruz to 6 for Trump. Such an outcome would bring the race one step closer to a brokered convention… at which the Republican Establishment may very well attempt to steal the nomination from both Trump and Cruz, giving it to an Establishment pick who never competed in a single state primary.

“The thing that does trouble me, with everything that’s taking place right now, is Trump and Cruz are literally tearing each other apart, and the Establishment’s just sitting there,” said Ryun. “Quite frankly, I think they’ve got a plan that if nobody has the magic number come convention, that they’re going to put in place a plan that makes sure the Establishment wins in the end.”

“Some of my sources have told me about meetings that have taken place in the last few weeks, that there are serious conversations and plans to work some things on the convention floor,” he added.

Given the machinations of that not-so-secret conspiracy, it might have made sense for the two outsider candidates to join forces against in an “anti-Establishment ticket,” which would certainly have more than enough combined delegates to take the nomination… but Ryun thought the possibility of an alliance had been taken off the table by “Trump and Cruz tearing each other apart in a real vicious way, the last couple of weeks.”

“There’s such hard feelings between the two camps, between the Trump and Cruz camps, I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get together,” he lamented, after Bannon noted there was bad blood between the staffers on each side, as well as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz themselves.

“If Cruz could just take a moment – I know this is horrifying to Cruz supporters, that I’d even mention this – but if he could just take a moment and realize his mathematical chances of getting to 1,237 [delegates] are virtually impossible,” said Ryun. “If he continues down this path, neither he or Trump will probably come up with that number. A couple of weeks ago, I thought Trump could get there. I’m starting to think he’s gonna fall a little short.”

Knowing that the Establishment hates Cruz as much as Trump, Ryun thought the Senator’s chances of winning the nomination on later rounds of balloting were no better than Trump’s, although Bannon argued that Cruz was a tough, skilled politician whose delegates were more firmly committed to him, making him a heavyweight contender in a floor fight.

“People have to decide: do they really want an anti-Establishment ticket, or not?” Ryun said.

If they do, they better get their heads together over the next few weeks and figure this one out.  If they don’t, if they want to roll the dice at the convention… listen, you’re playing on house rules.  The Party runs the convention, the Party runs the rules.  You’re gonna walk into, you know, essentially play a game by the house rules, and all of the rules are going to be stacked in their favor… I do not like the odds of it going into the convention and having an anti-Establishment walking out.

He said that if the Establishment wins a rigged game at the convention, it would be a “disaster.”

“If Trump were to walk in with, say, 150 – 200 delegates short, and the convention comes out, we have somebody that’s not named Trump, and quite frankly not named Cruz, we might as well stop campaigning,” Ryun said, warning that Democrat victory in the general election would be assured by a massive Republican Party betrayal of its voters.


This article originally appeared on Breitbart