Trump opponents claim they were bullied

Never Trump operatives say their members were bullied by the Republican National Committee (RNC) before party leaders finally squashed their efforts in a controversial floor vote.

Dane Waters, who was leading the whip operation encouraging delegates to vote their conscience, said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his operatives flooded delegates with texts and phone calls demanding they toe the party line.

{mosads}“Priebus whipped votes on the floor, had floor whips peeling people off, being very aggressive with people,” Waters said. “I think you’ll see plenty of reports of inappropriate behavior. I think Chairman Priebus needs to resign as chairman of the party.”

“We had Trump people looking over our delegates’ shoulders, taking pictures of their texts,” said Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate who co-founded the “Free the Delegates” movement. “We had Trump delegates standing at the microphones to deny us access.”

An RNC official has not returned a request for comment, but presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign and the RNC orchestrated a similarly tough and well-organized effort at the Rules Committee meeting last week. 

Texts obtained by The Hill show RNC officials telling Rules Committee members how they should vote on certain measures put before the committee.

On Monday, the RNC ignored an outcry from angry delegates at the Republican National Convention, moving to adopt the convention’s rules by a voice vote.

Trump’s whip team wore neon green hats and were out in force on the convention floor, leading the efforts to shout down the rebellion.

The eruption over party rules came after a group of Never Trump supporters thought they had secured enough signatures to force a roll call vote on the party rules. 

They claimed to have turned in signatures from a majority of delegates in 11 states, more than the seven states required to force a roll call vote.

But party leaders said they only received enough signatures from 10 states, and that signers for four states peeled off, leaving them with majorities from just six states.

“Which three states they’re talking about? We have no idea,” said former Iowa GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker, who is also involved in the movement. “They have not provided any information as far as what states. We have no idea what it means that three states withdrew. I’m sure it goes back to the intimidation by Priebus and the Trump campaign asking people to pull back signatures or whatever happened.” 

An RNC official told The Hill that delegates from Minnesota, Washington, Washington, D.C., Maine and Iowa originally had enough signatures but that delegates backed out at the last minute. A fifth state, Alaska, was rumored to have enough signatures but didn’t meet the threshold, the official said.

Even some Trump and RNC allies were angered by the proceedings.

A top donor raising money for Trump and the RNC said he resigned in disgust after the party muscled through the floor vote.

Gary Emineth, a former North Dakota GOP chairman who joined the joint finance committee between Trump and the RNC last month, said he was infuriated by the floor vote and immediately texted his resignation to Priebus.

“I was on the Trump finance committee, and I just resigned because that bully tactic is absurd,” Emineth said. “I just texted them right now. Why can’t the people be heard? I’ve been texting Reince for 10 minutes. He said we didn’t have the votes. We had 10, 11 states. They peeled people back. They were calling delegations asking people to step off the committee. You don’t do this in America. You do this in other countries.”

Emineth said that the campaign and RNC worked in tandem to pressure delegates away from voting their conscience.

“We have text messages, people we know who were called that were hardcore with us. … They were getting called,” Emineth said. “So Reince texts me; he says three states peeled off. Why not share that with the public? We don’t know. You guys should demand that from them. Give us the states. Give us the people. That’s really pathetic.

“If that’s how they’re doing the Republican Party, they can have it,” Emineth said, before calling on Priebus to resign.

“It’s a joke,” he said.

This story was updated at 7:39 p.m.