Bloomberg
By James Nash and Ben Brody
March 16, 2016
Fresh
off three more primary victories, Donald Trump said Wednesday he’ll
blow off the next Republican presidential debate and warned of “riots”
if power-brokers deny him the nomination at
the convention even if he's leading in the delegate count.
The
billionaire New York developer, who held a narrow lead in Missouri and
lost Ohio on Tuesday, is faced with the prospect of a floor fight at the
party convention in July if he's leading
in delegates but falls short of a majority, 1,237.
“I
think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you,
if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re
at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400
cause we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we
don’t get it automatically,” Trump said on CNN on Wednesday. “I think
you’d have riots.”
“I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen,” Trump said, adding the outcome would “disenfranchise” his supporters.
Trump's
decision likely will scuttle the debate set for Monday in Salt Lake
City and hosted by Fox News. He claimed to have been caught off guard by
the event. “We’ve had enough debates,”
he said on the network Wednesday. “Nobody told me about it and I won’t
be there.” He said skipping the debate would allow him to speak at the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference running from
Sunday to Tuesday in Washington.
Ohio
Governor John Kasich, who won his homestate's primary on Tuesday, won't
take part in the debate if Trump's not there, a spokesman, Rob
Nichols, said. Representatives of Texas Senator
Ted Cruz didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.
Trump
has skipped a debate before—the one held days before the Iowa caucuses
on Feb. 1 that were won by Cruz. Trump had complained about Fox News’
treatment of him at the time, and instead
held an event that he said raised money for veterans’ charities. Utah
holds its Republican caucuses on March 22.
Representatives of Fox News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kasich
deprived Trump of a sweep on Tuesday by winning the Buckeye State.
Senator Marco Rubio ended his campaign for the Republican nomination
after getting beaten badly by Trump in Florida.
On
the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in four of five contests and held a
narrow lead in Missouri, a race the Associated
Press said was too close to call. Her victory speech made clear she is
increasingly focusing on a general-election race against Trump in the
fall.
Cruz,
who says he intends to win 1,237 delegates before the convention, noted
in a CNN interview that if he falls short, delegates will have
discretion on whom they vote for.
Cruz
strategists have been gaming scenarios in which they pick off delegates
to keep Trump from clinching the nomination in Cleveland. If no
candidate gets to the convention with a majority,
Cruz could try to flip delegates pledged to Rubio, Kasich, and other
candidates on the second ballot. Forty-four states allow a state party
convention or executive committee to assign delegates to their preferred
candidates.
Kasich
is banking on the possibility of convention rules being rewritten when
the delegates arrive, allowing him to compete there. (He's not expected
to win the number of states required
to appear on a convention ballot under current rules.) But with the
majority of delegates already claimed by Trump and Cruz, they may be
unwilling to give Kasich a chance.
“The
Cruz folks would never allow the rules to be changed and of course we
wouldn't either,” said Barry Bennett, a Trump convention strategist,
according to Politico.
The
possibility of a chaotic convention even led former House Speaker John
Boehner on Wednesday to say he'd hypothetically support his successor,
Paul Ryan, as nominee, despite voting for
Kasich in the Ohio primary. Ryan has said he isn’t interested.
“If
we don’t have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I’m for none
of the above,” Boehner said at a conference, according to Politico.
“They all had a chance to win. None of them won.
So I’m for none of the above. I’m for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.”
“He
has endorsed Governor John Kasich,” Boehner spokesman David Schnittger
said in an e-mail. “His off-the-cuff comments this morning were about a
hypothetical scenario in which none of the
current candidates are able to secure the nomination at the
convention.”
Republicans haven't had a contested convention since 1976, when President Gerald Ford edged an insurgent Ronald Reagan.
Trump
led with 460 delegates heading into Tuesday’s elections, followed by
Cruz with 370, Rubio with 163, and Kasich with 63, according to the
Associated Press. By Wednesday morning, with
the Missouri race still uncalled, Trump stood at 661, Cruz at 406, and
Kasich at 142, according to the newswire.
Along
with Utah, the next Republican contest is in Arizona on March 22.
Arizona’s vote is a primary with 58 delegates and Utah’s is a caucus
with 40. Arizona’s delegates, like most from other
states, are free to vote for the candidate of their choice if no
candidate enters the convention with a majority.
In
both states, only registered Republicans will be eligible to vote. Ron
Nehring, a spokesman for Cruz, said those rules favor the Texan.
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