Republican Party bigwigs fought back at Donald Trump Wednesday following the GOP presidential front-runner’s latest onslaught over his party’s nominating process being “crooked” and rigged.”
"Nomination process known for a year + beyond.
A top Republican fired back at The Donald for his scathing criticism of the GOP's nominating process.
"Nomination process known for a year + beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted early Wednesday. “The rules were set last year. Nothing mysterious — nothing new. The rules have not changed. The rules are the same. Nothing different.”
His rebuttal comes after days of scathing criticism from Trump, who has repeatedly alleged that the GOP's “very unfair” process is stripping him of the nomination he says he is on track to win.
"I know the rules very well, but I know it's stacked against me by the establishment," Trump during a CNN town hall Tuesday night.
Trump has attacked the party as he’s struggled to keep pace with rival Ted Cruz's delegate operation. Cruz made gains in Colorado, North Dakota, Louisiana and elsewhere by mastering the complicated state-by-state delegate selection process.
In recent days, Trump has taken particular aim at the way Cruz swept all of Colorado’s 34 delegates at state and congressional district GOP conventions. Colorado residents voted last year to implement the new vote-free procedures.
Trump still leads Cruz in the overall delegate count 743-545, but his path to secure the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination outright before the Republican National Convention in July grows more fraught with each individual delegate he loses to Cruz.
The close race is likely to result in a contested convention — a controversial outcome that a number of high-profile Republicans have said would cause them to skip the event altogether.
Citing fears over a possible chaos at the Cleveland gathering, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte and others have all suggested they’d skip the event and campaign in their home states instead, CNN reported.
With News Wire Services