The Daily Trail: Donald Trump vs. the 'rigged, disgusting, dirty system'
Rebecca Sinderbrand
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"The system, folks, is rigged. It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system."
Yes, the "rigged economy" was Bernie Sanders's focus on his visit there, as it has been for months. But that line was Donald Trump's.
"Donald Trump built his business empire by exploiting the rules of business to his favor with brash skill, working corporate bankruptcy regulations, eminent-domain laws and the tax code to suit his bottom line," Jose A. DelReal reported from upstate New York.
"But now Trump finds himself struggling to cope with a different set of rules — those governing the GOP nominating contest, which he and his campaign have failed to control with the same deftness he brags about as an entrepreneur. ...
"Trump, who scheduled a rally here Tuesday, has responded by lashing out at party leaders, at his rivals and at the delegate process, arguing that the system is 'totally corrupt' and that Cruz is 'stealing' delegates at state conventions.
"'The system, folks, is rigged. It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system. And only a non-politician would say it,' Trump said Monday night in Albany, N.Y. '...And then when everything is done, I find out I get less delegates than this guy that got his ass kicked.'eo3:02
"Where Trump sees a conspiracy to keep him from the nomination, party leaders and Cruz see someone who failed to learn the rules of the game.
"...The Republican National Committee has leapt to defend the process, saying the delegate system has been used by the party to choose a presidential candidate for generations. Party leaders — who have sought to maintain a cordial relationship with Trump — also have made unusually pointed statements about the rules.
"'It’s no secret how the delegates are allocated. It’s wide open for everyone to look at,' Sean Spicer, the RNC’s communications director, said on Fox News. 'So not understanding that is one thing, but it’s hardly rigged when it’s done right out in the open.'"
CAMPAIGN #MATH:
Someone who's very happy with the GOP's delegate rules: Ted Cruz, who says he has won "11 elections in four states."
But wait, you say -- isn't 11 a lot more than four? How exactly did he arrive at that figure?
We're glad you asked. Here's the breakdown, via Dave Weigel: "As Cruz explains, he is counting each of Colorado's seven congressional district conventions and its statewide assembly as separate contests, including a race in the 7th district where two unbound delegates were elected to one for Cruz. When he claims that '65,000 people voted,' he is referring to yet another election — the non-binding preference poll conducted March 1, where no delegates were assigned, but Republican activists got their first instructions about the April conventions.
"Cruz's preferred history of the primaries seems calibrated to anger Trump, who in two New York speeches has attacked the 'crooked' Colorado process. But it has also angered Trump's supporters and sympathetic observers. Matt Drudge's Drudge Report mocked Cruz's Colorado wins with a front page splash about how no one voted. If anyone missed his point, he followed up on Twitter: 'Does George Bush have to invade Colorado to make it a Democracy? STUNNING Republicans had NO PRIMARY or CAUCUS. At least Dems are faking it.'"
Up next: delegate elections in Wyoming and Virginia, followed by New York's primary. That vote is still a week away, but Ted Cruz appears to be over it already -- Heidi Cruz has appeared at events in the state, but the Texas senator hasn't made any public stops there since his April 7 visit to a Brighton Beach matzoh baking session. It's a streak that isn't scheduled to end until his CNN town hall in New York tomorrow night.
(New Trump radio spot today: "When it comes to New York values, other candidates do not like us...")
Donald Trump's attack on the delegate system came on a day he actually gained ground on that front. Today wasn't an Election Day, but Trump and Hillary Clinton still technically added a state to their win columns as Missouri officially certified the results of last month's primary there -- a move that added 12 delegates to Trump's bottom line.
Donald Trump has the lead in the GOP delegate chase, and odds are he'll keep it (even if he doesn't win a pre-convention majority.) Bernie Sanders is trailing in the Democratic delegate chase, and odds are he won't catch up. But with both of them vocally unhappy with how the delegate process is playing out, it appears that some of their supporters are increasingly turning their ire on delegates themselves.
There has been a low-key pressure campaign on superdelegates from some Sanders backers for much of the race. But as the Sanders campaign has shifted its pitch, saying momentum should be as much of a factor as vote totals or delegate counts, some of the Vermont senator's supporters have decided they're no longer willing to take no for an answer, report Anne Gearan, John Wagner and Abby Phillip:
"Among those efforts is a website created last week under the name Superdelegate Hit List, providing phone numbers and addresses for superdelegates and encouraging users to submit further contact information, presumably to help advocates pressure them. Site creator Spencer Thayer, a Chicago activist, described the goal this way in a Twitter message: 'So who wants to help start . . . a new website aimed at harassing Democratic Superdelegates?'" (The site's name has since been changed to "Superdelegate List.")
The campaign says it has no connection to these efforts -- which, say superdelegates, still haven't reached anywhere near the fevered pitch of 2008's battles. But it plans to intensify its own courting of unbound delegates over the next few weeks.
Clinton, who didn't gain any delegates from today's announcement, still has a sizable delegate lead on Bernie Sanders. But what if, as Sanders backers have proposed, superdelegates were required to reflect the will of the people, and vote in accordance with results in their state? The Fix crunched the numbers today: in that case, Clinton would...have a sizable delegate lead on Sanders.
COUNT HIM OUT:
Paul Ryan is not running for president. He has said he will not run for president this year. And said it. And said it. Roughly 20 times (and counting) so far this cycle. Today, he said it again. "He's going to rule himself out and put this to rest once and for all," a Ryan aide said optimistically, just ahead of the speaker's afternoon remarks.
The House speaker has actually had plenty of practice delivering this message: here he is telling a C-Span caller back in 1998 that he wouldn't be mounting a White House bid because he wasn't actually old enough to run. And sometime in the next month or so, he will probably deliver it yet again, some more, because this is How We 2016 Now. Here is what that will likely look like:
First will come the on-background announcement that the speaker will make an on-the-record announcement that he's not running. The news will draw this reaction from many reporters and some establishment Republicans:
Then Ryan will say something like what he said today. "Count me out," he told reporters. “Let me be clear: I do not want nor will I accept the nomination for our party.”
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