On Wednesday morning, conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt called for a delegate revolt at the Republican National Convention in July. He argued that, rather than having delegates fulfill their pledges to support Donald Trump, they should cast their own votes and “let the convention decide.”
Hewitt discussed South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s call for Republicans to un-endorse Trump, and argued that the party should support whomever the nominee is. At the same time, he claimed that the delegates to the convention should choose for themselves rather than abiding by the “binding” process of the primaries, by which states have bound the necessary delegates for Trump to win the nomination.
“I want to support the nominee of the party, but I think the party ought to change the nominee, because we’re going to get killed with this nominee,” Hewitt declared Wednesday morning on his radio show. “They ought to get together and let the convention decide.”
Hewitt reiterated that he would support whomever the nominee becomes. “If Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four-to-five weeks, great! They can keep him. It would be better if he had done so five weeks ago.”
“It’s like ignoring stage-four cancer,” the talk show host explained. “You can’t do it, you gotta go attack it. And right now the Republican Party is facing — the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours.”
Hewitt’s call for an open convention comes at the same time as rumors have begun to swirl that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker would accept the Republican nomination should The Donald tank before the convention.
Next Page: Could Scott Walker drop back into the race?
In an interview with a local TV station in Wisconsin, Walker walked back his Trump endorsement. He added that The Donald “is not yet the nominee. Officially that won’t happen until the middle of July and for me that’s kind of the timeframe. In particular I want to make sure he renounces what he says, at least in regards to this judge.”
Some have interpreted Walker’s comment — that Trump “is not yet the nominee” — as evidence that the Wisconsin governor is entertaining the possibility that someone else might become the nominee in July.
This has led some Republicans to think that Walker himself might throw his hat in the ring. The Wisconsin governor started the 2016 presidential race with high favorability and poll numbers but then dropped out to give room for another candidate to oppose Trump. He also had spent more money than he brought in, and had decided to pander to various different sides of the conservative movement in a somewhat haphazard way.
These campaign failures aside, many Republicans might look favorably at Walker, the governor who won three elections in just over four years and who has firmly stood for the freedom of workers to opt out of joining a union. Could the governor make a comeback? Time will tell, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Next Page: Full audio of the Hewitt comments.
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