#NeverTrump Seeks ‘Conscience Clause’ RNC Rule Change in Last-Ditch Effort to Stop Trump

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Republican opponents of Donald Trump are making one final last-ditch effort to stop the presumptive nominee at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

The remaining operatives in the #NeverTrump movement are trying to convince the convention Rules Committee to make a rule change allowing for pledged delegates to vote against Trump on the first ballot based on their “conscience.”

However, Trump says the gambit is illegal.

Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh held a conference call Thursday night with other anti-Trump Republican delegates. On the call, the NeverTrumpers reportedly discussed a “conscience clause” rule change.

#NeverTrump operative Tim Miller, best known as the communications director for the failed Jeb Bush campaign, has spelled out the plan on Twitter, saying that factors including Trump’s “frankly racist behavior” require action:

But the plot is likely to lose as badly as Miller’s campaign did in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Trump said that “any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.”

RNC spokesman Sean Spicer added, “The extent of this effort is a bunch of random people tweeting about it, full stop.”

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