No Reince Priebus did NOT say that!

I’d like to issue a bit of a call to my fellow conservatives who have been sold (largely by rabid Tumpkins) that the GOP is out to work over the voters of their party.

“Calm down… it’s not going to be what they keep telling you it is going to be.”

I’ll admit I have regular bouts of insane conversations with conspiracy nuts who absolutely believe the GOP is trying to steal the election. They are almost 100% of the time Trump supporters, and they are doing it for a variety of reasons.

1. Some are utterly ignorant of the process. Some of the loudest voices online and sadly on-air are those who feel like they’ve only been “allowed in” to the process for the first time in their lives in 2016. When asked about reasons why they’ve never voted before they say things like, “Oh yeah, well I was in the army, what’d you ever do for your country?” Great to know, but I don’t think being in uniform ever made you not vote. These folks “feel like” Trump is finally saying the things they’ve always wanted their elected leaders to say. The problem is they don’t know the other half of all things he’s said (even on the campaign trail) that completely contradict what they think he said that they liked. They don’t know how delegates are selected. They believe there shouldn’t even be a convention. And they think we all live in a democracy.
2. Some believe the smears. As was evident in his campaign statement last night following his catastrophic loss in Wisconsin, the REAL Donald Trump is never far off from a tongue lashing especially if he got his third grade feelings hurt. So he says things, approves of things, and admits things aren’t true but allows, says, and admits them anyway because he’s angry. His most pure-hearted followers have forgiven him his many missteps in this areas because they are honest to goodness tired of the status quo and they are willing to put up with the non-sense even though they know its morally depraved. They’ve drank the kool-aid and believe that Donald really is being targeted by the media (in ways other conservatives haven’t been) and that they have to support this guy no matter who he smears merely to attempt the reform they genuinely want to see come about.
3. Some completely know better but go along with it anyway. This is the group I really have a hard time with. Some of them have worked in politics. Some haven’t. Some have a book to sell, or media appearances to gain from this position so to heck with the commitment to conservative ideas and pushing forward the solutions that will help America. Some honestly believed Trump would turn out different, but now that they (and the world) see that he isn’t they are just unable to bring themselves to reverse course–hoping all along against hope itself that Trump isn’t going to wind up being even half as bad as he has been thus far.

Last night after the results were coming in, people in all three of the categories above believe they found the “smoking gun” that proves the theories that the GOP is out to steal the nomination process out from under the millions of voters who have put their hearts into 2016.

Reince Priebus is asked a simple few questions from Sean Hannity. Reince answers in a little bit of a clumsy way but he more or less assures the viewer of a few things:

1. The GOP nominee will be required to assemble the 1237 delegate votes from the floor of the convention.
2. The nominee will have to be someone who is “running.” (This effectively eliminates the helicopter candidate theory.)
3. The nominee will have to live up to the bare minimum of Rule40b and win a majority of delegates in at least 8 states.
4. The nominee will be one of the three men running in the race at present.

It’s that 4th assertion that Hannity (and every nutty Trumpkin in Trumpkinland) immediately jumped on.

“Ah hah!!!” they say, “See Priebus is indicating he’s going to insert John Kasich as the nominee.”

But there is zero evidence that Priebus is doing this, and even less evidence that he has any intention of doing it.

What he said was, “the nominee will be someone who is running, satisfies Rule40b, and reaches 1237.”

“Butttttttt Kev,” they respond breathlessly. “Kasich hasn’t hit the qualifications for Rule40b. Only Trump has,” they say.

Like I said, “Just… calm… down…”

Kasich as of today has not yet hit a majority in 8 states. He has hit a majority of delegates in 1 state. Which means he would need to hit the majority in seven more states before he qualifies.

But there are 19 more contests to go.

Suppose Le Tour de l’énorme infantile Terrible (#TrumpTrain) continues to implode. Suppose Kasich hits a hot streak in the Northeast and takes several states from Trump. How foolish would Priebus have looked in promising to only allow Cruz or Trump to be on the ballot at the convention if Kasich–by some miracle of the divine–garnered seven more delegate majorities?

It would have been WRONG for Priebus to promise to not let Kasich be in consideration if he has met the requirements–and with 19 states to go–anything could still happen.

Also realize this, by answering as he did, he also eliminated the possibility or smokey-deal-back-room muck that Trumpkins keep peddling. Jeb, Kasich, Ryan, nor Rubio are not going to be eligible for the second ballot because right now only two candidates have picked up delegate majorities in 8 or more states.

And for the record likely BOTH will add to the numbers they currently have. Presently Trump has delegate majorities in 10 states, Cruz has 9 states.

Had Sean changed the question to “If the convention were held today, would there be three people eligible for nomination.” And Priebus had said, “yes.” That would have been an actual “gotcha.”

But according to the rules that govern the process, according to the rules they all agreed to follow, and according to the expectation that the rules will not be pulled out from under everyone at the last minute…

Priebus answered exactly as he should have.

And even Trumpkins can take comfort in that!