This Is Exactly How A Major Party's National Convention Is Not Supposed To Go View Report Campaign Preview
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This is exactly how a Major Party's National Convention is not supposed to go
There were two ways everyone predicted the first day of the Republican National Convention could go: bad or really bad, but what we got was a complete and utter disaster.
Before the convention even began, Paul Ryan couldn't find his partner in crime, Scott Walker, who was too busy schmoozing the Iowa delegation trying to re-live his failed presidential bid and couldn't be bothered by his own fellow Wisconsinites. With breakfast just wrapping up, Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and the Convention Chair, said Donald Trump isn't "his kind of conservative". And we imagine Ron Johnson was haggling over airline flight fees due to his last second decision to head to Cleveland (those late charges can getchyuh), instead of skipping his party's convention like so many other senators, congressman, and party leaders did.
All of this took place before the order was called on the Convention floor.
But much to the dismay of Ryan, Reince Priebus, and other Republicans who are just trying to get through this weekend without cancelling their party dues, the fun was just beginning.
Within hours of the Republican's convention kicking off, civil war broke out on the floor, with multiple states' delegations and members of the #NeverTrump movement calling for a roll call vote to try and prevent Trump from securing the nomination. Instead of following the agreed upon rules, party leaders circumvented the dissatisfied delegates and refused to hold a floor vote. Things on the floor became so heated the Iowa and Colorado delegations left the convention.While this took place inside the Quicken Loans arena in Cleveland, outside protesters, Republicans opposed to a Trump candidacy, and even members of Ted Cruz's tea party constituency carried signs and screamed to the sky their dismay with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee.
A few other memorable moments were more delegates refusing to attend the convention, former New Hampshire Senator Gordon Humphrey calling Trump supporters "Brown Shirts", and the chair of Ohio's Republican party saying Trump's campaign manager had a lot to learn. And of course, it wouldn't be the Trump convention without at least one RNC official calling President Obama a Muslim.
And as if Donald Trump, the entertainer extraordinaire, couldn't write a better ending, with his wife delivering verbatim portions of the speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 DNC convention.
While the Republican party can't make heads or tails of who they are, one thing is clear to the rest of the world: they are anything but unified.
