Todd M. Siebert: Trump memo: We will crush Cruz with 1400 delegates

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Trump memo: We will crush Cruz with 1400 delegates

Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump

An internal memo by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign predicts his “YUGE” victory in New York has started a political landslide that will leave Texas Sen. Ted Cruz crushed beneath 1,400 delegates.

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A 1,165-word memo obtained Wednesday by the Washington Post show Trump’s team is confident it will far surpass the 1,237 Republican delegates needed to outright win the party’s nomination. The billionaire’s showing in New York has also made it mathematically impossible for Cruz to amass 1,237 delegates of his own on a first ballot vote at July’s convention.

“The Cruz spin machine produces more lies than anything else,” the memo reads, the newspaper reported. “Our projections call for us to accumulate over 1400 delegates and thus a first ballot nomination win in Cleveland.”

Radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on Wednesday that political winds are shifting in Trump’s favor.

“[Cruz’s] only hope and prayer is that it goes to a second ballot. That’s why I’m spending so much time telling you that the GOP, the RNC, more and more stories here about that 1,237 not being a hard number now,” said Limbaugh. “All of a sudden it’s becoming a soft number. All of a sudden more and more RNC people, ‘Yeah, you know, I’d be really tough to take it away from a guy who got all these votes and was the far-and-away leader in the popular vote, only a hundred delegates short, we can’t take it away from that guy, there would be hell to pay.’ They’re right.”

Limbaugh went on to say that if Trump were to arrive at the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, just 100 delegates shy of 1,237 threshold, then “the bandwagon effect” would commence.

“He’s gonna be able to arrange enough trips to Trump Air One to get half of them to vote for him, or whatever. And that’s why I talked about the bandwagon effect. They’re all starting to realize here that if Trump shows up 50 or a hundred short that there’s enough unbound delegates in the first ballot unpledged that he can go get,” Limbaugh said. “That’s all that’s happening here. And Cruz and the guys are hoping first ballot doesn’t produce any winner, because second, third ballot is the only chance they’ve got.”

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Trump’s delegate count after Wednesday’s election in The Empire State stands at 845 delegates to Cruz’s 559. Ohio Gov. John Kasich refuses to exit the race despite only winning 147 delegates.

“The Kasich delegate countdown’s magic number to clinch the nomination is now 1,090,” Limbaugh joked. “He’s only a thousand ninety delegates away from clinching! He has won 147 delegates. He’s still behind Marco Rubio, who is out of the race. But Kasich got some delegates last night.”

Radio host Rush Limbaugh has used Ohio Gov. John Kasich's delegate count to highlight the absurdity of his continued presidential campaign (Photo: RushLimbaugh.com screenshot)

Radio host Rush Limbaugh uses Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s delegate count to highlight the absurdity of his continued presidential campaign (Photo: RushLimbaugh.com screenshot)

Cruz told reporters in Florida that any candidate’s home-state win is essentially a non-issue, and that his campaign will have the upper hand at a contested convention.

“At the end of the day, to win the Republican nomination, you have to win the majority of the delegates elected by the people,” Cruz said, the Hill reported Wednesday. “We are on a path to doing that and Donald is on the path to losing the nomination. All of his bluster, all his bravado is designed to hide that simple fact.”

One “simple fact” that is not hidden to Republican strategists is the looming specter of Democrat Hillary Clinton becoming the next U.S. president due to lingering animosity between Trump and Cruz supporters.

Trump has reason to be optimistic on that front as well.

“Whatever happens, it’s important we have a unity ticket at the convention and leave Cleveland united and energized,” an alternate delegate and Rubio backer told Breitbart News on Wednesday. “Whatever combination emerges, with Cruz or without, a unified Republican front is the goal.”

Republican National Convention delegates from the District of Columbia who are bound to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kasich told the website, for all intents and purposes, that “Never Trump” rhetoric might not be as permanent as originally advertised.

“I am going to support whoever the nominee is because I’m Republican first and foremost, and it would be very hard for me to ever support a Democrat,” Teri Galvez said. “When I was single I never even dated one. I don’t get excited about Trump. He is the one candidate that I get excited the least about. Again, if Marco was chosen as VP I would warm up to the idea more.”