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While the Republican Party works with the Trump campaign to head off a delegate rebellion against him, there is some good news for a weary Reince Priebus this year: There's sure going to be a lot of elbow room backstage!
With the convention less than a month away, POLITICO contacted more than 50 prominent governors, senators and House members to gauge their interest in speaking. Only a few said they were open to it, and everyone else said they weren’t planning on it, didn’t want to, or weren’t going to Cleveland at all — or simply didn’t respond.
There have been previous stories about this, but it's getting rather close to put-up-or-shut-up time for convention planners and indeed, it seems that the possible speaker pickings are getting slim indeed. There will be no up-and-coming Mia Love this time around. No Kelly Ayotte, or Nikki Haley, and it looks like even Ohio Gov. John Kasich will be bowing out of giving any meaningful speech at the convention held in his own state.
But we will get to hear from each one of Trump's children, it appears. And Chris Christie is sure to make an appearance, if only to bring Trump snacks between speeches. Oh—and former Jesus pitchman Mike Huckabee has gone over to Team Orange, because it's all the same crap to Mike Huckabee.
"If he asked me, I’d be glad to do it. I’d be honored to," Huckabee remarked, going on to say that those who oppose Trump should not be speaking on the stage at Quicken Loans Arena anyway [...]
And lo, he said unto those losers, thou shalt maketh thine deals artful and surround thyself with golden everything, because gold is damn classy.
All right, so the convention speakers we've got lined up so far consist of children fathered by Trump, a bit of Mike Huckabee, and we'll fill the rest of the time with Chris Christie doing magic tricks. Sounds perfect. America won't be able to take their eyes off of it.
