GOP Convention Not Feeling So Festive This Year
Washington Post political editor Rebecca Sinderbrand tells us what’s in store.
For the next two weeks, Detroit Today will be focusing on the national party conventions.
This week, Republicans get ready to confirm Donald Trump as the party’s choice for president in November. It will also adopt a party platform that will shape the party’s focus across the country. This could have especially big implications in places like Michigan, where the GOP controls every aspect of state government.
It looks unlikely there will be much conflict on the convention floor this week with the #NeverTrump folks significantly outnumbered. So what should we expect to see? And what might happen outside the convention in Cleveland?
“I think it’s fair to say that the mood is a bit subdued. There are a number of reasons for that,” says Rebecca Sinderbrand, a political editor for the Washington Post, who’s in Cleveland for the RNC.
Sinderbrand says one of the things bringing down the mood at the convention is a string of violent attacks in the news. But she says it’s also the product of many delegates who will be casting votes for a presidential candidate they don’t support. She says efforts to dump Trump as the party’s nominee at the RNC have all but failed. That’s because the convention’s Rules Committee shot down a series of proposals put forward by #NeverTrump delegates.
“There are some symbolic gestures” anti-Trump delegates can still make, says Sinderbrand. “But these are not things that can stop Donald Trump from claiming the nomination.”
To hear the full conversation, click on the audio player above.
