We could smell this coming from a mile away:
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Trump said if he got a large number of delegates yet was denied the nomination: "I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots. I'm representing many, many millions of people."
The magic number of delegates for Trump is 1,237—that will all but guarantee him the nomination, short of some extraordinary rule change. But he's suggesting that even if he doesn't reach that number and a contested convention ensues, having anyone but him emerge as the nominee will produce a convention scene we haven't seen in decades. He's not the only who thinks that.
“Only in the minds of the delusional DC establishment is there a brokered convention at this point,” said Tony Fabrizio, a longtime GOP pollster who advised Rand Paul’s campaign. “And if the elites try and steal the nomination from Trump, the riots at the ’68 Democratic Convention will look like a garden party.”
Meanwhile, some of those establishment types are still laboring to do just that.
“The goal for most of us at this point is to keep delegates away from Trump, and it really doesn’t matter who wins them,” said Charlie Black, a longtime GOP operative who just signed on as an adviser to Kasich’s campaign as it approaches a contested convention. “There are delegates who will be bound to Trump on the first ballot or the first two ballots who aren’t going to be for Trump once they’re free. If you get to a third ballot, the world changes.”
Oh, and did we mention that Trump is skipping the next Republican debate? After all, who needs it? GOP voters have spoken.