Anti-Trump delegates protested on Monday afternoon during the Republican National Convention as an effort to change the party’s rules.

The Republican National Convention was the scene of a discordant chaotic start as anti-Trump forces expressed vocal dissent on Monday afternoon at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The delegates’ request for a rule call vote seemed to be a final effort to stop Trump’s march to the presidential nomination.

GOP-trump-protesters
Trump protesters clash with police outside the California Republican Convention in Burlingame, Calif. Credit: Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times

Attempts to Block Donald Trump’s March to the Presidential Nomination

Delegates from nine different states changed a rule call vote on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

The chaotic opening day of the Republican National Convention began midafternoon when hundreds of delegates expressed their disapproval with a “roll call vote” chant.  A majority of nine delegations, including Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Maine, Iowa, Virginia, Wyoming, Utah and Washington, D.C., proposed a petition to Susie Hudson, secretary of the convention, in which delegates requested for a full roll call on the adoption of the rules package. They gathered petition from nine states to defeat the voice vote and demand for a formal roll call vote on adopting the rules that govern the convention.

The rules opposing delegates wanted to defeat included a provision requiring delegates to commit themselves to support the elected candidate by their state’s primary or caucus process. This means that with that particular regulation in effect, it would have been very easy for Mr. Trump to count with the necessary number of delegates to win the nomination on Tuesday.

Protests erupted at the convention when it was time for the delegates to vote on the rules package and the co-chair of the Rules Committee, Enid Mickelson, ignored delegates’ request. Members of the delegations got furious and began shouting “call the roll.”

The convention heads silenced microphones of the states that wanted recognition, which caused further disturbances among protesting delegates.

Five minutes past and the deputy chair of the conference, Steve Womack, emerged to announce that even if nine states successfully submitted the request for a roll call. Three of the protesting states eventually retired, as a result, they lost the necessary support of the seven-state threshold to call for a roll call.

Actions from anti-Trumps delegates won’t tamper with Trump getting to the presidential nomination, but it was a public display of opposition that will dim the scenario as there are still three-and-a-half days remaining to the end of the convention.

It seems to be a final attempt to stop Donald Trump to be formally chosen as the party’s presidential nominee.

In turn, Trump’s supporters called the opening day chaos as an uncivilized spectacle conducted mainly by fascists.

“The unruly, uncivilized spectacle we witnessed was the Trump presidency in prototype. Many of his supporters, if they are not fascists, acted very much like fascists. They shouted us down, they allowed no debate, no points of order, no questions, no roll-call vote,” said former New Hampshire Senator, Gordon Humphrey, a fierce Trump critic.

Then, Womack moved immediately on to the next agenda item: the adoption of the Republican platform. However, protests erupted again from delegations alleging that Trump’s party had a disguised unity.

Source: Wall Street Journal