BREAKING: RNC prepares to cancel 2020 GOP Primary

[brooklynite]

Link to tweet

Kim Jong Un would be proud.....

[BlueJac]

1. WTF?

[MBS]

64. My question, too. n/t

[Sneederbunk]

103. It's hard to get primaried when there is no primary.

[SCantiGOP]

120. This is fake

Statement is real, headline is fake.
Don’t be so gullible people.

[mahina]

138. If our counterpart had a unanimous reso of support, that wouldn't end primaries.

Thanks, I thought so.

[brush]

122. Woohoo! Hope they go with that and are stuck with whatever Mueller comes out with.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Wait, what?

You guys are really afraid of Jeff Flake or John Kasich, aren't you?

[underpants]

14. Fundraising. He can lump almost all his money into the general election fund

and not have to wait for the full nomination. He and Romney both got stuck in between. Trump of course go free wall to wall press coverage (which he actually stated was his strategy) for the period.

[Cha]

26. And, mitt. poor widdle things. they don't

want to drag El Stupid through a primary.. expose more of his shit.

[DemoTex]

108. Aye, Cha!

Poor, poor Mitt .. we hardly knew ye.

[Cha]

111. Wonder if any of those geniuses thought

.. this might piss some sane repubs & Indies off. You know the ones who are tired of this Puppet's shite, too?!

[DontBooVote]

3. So, if true, does this mean that if you are a repug and want to run for president, there's no way...

to be nominated?

[Renew Deal]

6. At the convention

So if Trump falls apart, they would have to nominate someone else and that person would have no campaign infrastructure.

[Honeycombe8]

97. I guess you can still run, but w/o the GOP's support...and money...and connections.

Meaning...you can't, really.

[hlthe2b]

4. "Democracy at its finest". Even Putin had to make the slightest pretence of letting someone else run

[underpants]

8. Good point.

This is outrageous

[thesquanderer]

74. He'll still have a Dem to run against, no matter what. (n/t)

[hlthe2b]

79. well, yeah... I'm not promoting the ultimate conspiracy theory, but still...

Geebus. You find reassurance that one of two major political parties has blocked any opposition? I find it incredibly disturbing and even frightening.

[thesquanderer]

110. Normally, nobody in a party even thinks about running against an incumbent.

The "news" here, in a sense, is that the party is concerned enough about the possibility that they actively want to try to prevent it.

[hlthe2b]

132. Nobody in a party even "THINKS" about running against incumbent--really?

[thesquanderer]

135. I said "normally." It rarely actually happens.

But yeah, I can't tell you what people may have privately "thought" about.

[hlthe2b]

136. "normally"...

Well, I find it fascinating that some want to "normalize" such abhorrent actions-- that signals Trump's dictatorial control over one of our major political parties and the inherent risks that result...

[Sgent]

133. Tell that

to Pat Buchanan and Ted Kennedy.

[thesquanderer]

134. I didn't say never. But most recent was over 25 years ago.

It is exception rather than rule.

[Renew Deal]

5. Challengers better get on with announcing

Pretty tough to cancel when there is a challenger.

[musicblind]

69. Larry Hogan already announced he was primarying Trump.

Though I don't know how many others have made it official, yet.

[Renew Deal]

113. No he hasn't

He didn’t rule it out, but he hasn’t started an exploratory committee either. The committee is a key legal requirement.

[Va Lefty]

7. You can't make this shit up

KGOP has gone batshit crazy!

[unblock]

9. this is actually even scarier than it looks at first.

as scary as this may be in terms of what the republican party is becoming, what it means for the democratic party may be scarier yet.

if there is no republican primary process for republicans to participate in, many of them might well vote in the democratic primaries instead, temporarily registering as democrats if that's required in their state.

this could seriously disrupt our own candidate selection.

[dameatball]

23. Good insight.

[yonder]

29. +1.

[theophilus]

34. Best Democratic brains need to consider all of this. There is SO MUCH time. We don't

need to worry too much but there might need to be some changes in our Primary Season, as well. We can do it because we are clever. This needs to hurt them more than us.....no matter what.

[uponit7771]

45. +1

[LisaM]

57. Ugh.

One more thing on certain Democrats' wish list - completely wide open primaries, where anyone can create mischief.

[Achilleaze]

58. Yes. The demonic KGOP republican strategy for kristofascist, Inc. hegemony

over America and American democracy

[LiberalFighter]

75. And then we need the superdelegates to correct the problem.

[Rizen]

78. Good point.

[Mr.Bill]

84. Legislation can be passed on a state level

to prevent that.

[unblock]

92. How? Require people to be democrats for at least two years on order to vote in a primary?

It's not really practical, at least not to prevent republicans willing to register as democrats in order to vote in our primary.

We can at least insist they do that much. Not point in letting registered republicans mess our primaries up!

[rampartc]

127. +1

this is one of their favotite tricks,

[sunonmars]

130. Thats why closed primaries are a much better option, less chance of ratfuckery from the GOP.

[VOX]

10. How very Putinesque.

Allow NO opposition. This isn’t a democracy!

[Qutzupalotl]

11. Nikki Haley is probably thinking,

“I gave up being UN Ambassador for nothing?”

[LeftInTX]

123. ...

[SCantiGOP]

12. Come on people

You know damn well this isn’t real.

[CatMor]

13. This sounds like a joke ....

his "effective presidency". They can't be serious.

[canetoad]

76. Laxatives are effective

In their own way.

[The Genealogist]

98. It is effective under their apparent definition

which is to destroy regulations and legal protections, so that the rich can get richer.

[CatMor]

99. Will they ever be satisfied with their billions ...

or do they want it to be trillions.

[The Genealogist]

100. To be honest, I don't think there is such thing as "enough"

I don't think it is necessarily having the money, it is getting the money that is important. They want the money, which means power. Te less money one has in this country, really the less powerful he or she is.

[Squinch]

15. Wow! They're really opening their own veins now.

[Andy823]

16. The whole Republican Party

Is being blackmailed by trump and Putin. The Russians have more dirt on them than we can imagine, and they are using it, big time.

[NewJeffCT]

17. Wow, they're really rigging the process

They don't want anybody to challenge Lil Donny

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

30. "President for life...I like the sound of that." (dt referring to xi.)

[LovingA2andMI]

90. Don't Want To Hear From The Our Revolution Folks...

About the Process Being "Rigged" in 2016 as THIS IS WHAT REAL RIGGING, Looks Like. Point, Blank, Period!

[musicblind]

18. This can't be real? They are going to alienate their moderates.

My Mom, a moderate Republican, said she will never vote for Trump again and badly wants a primary with John Kasich, specifically. So, the RNC just assured they won't have a chance at her vote.

Do they really want to double down on the guy who can't keep his approval rating above 40%?

[sinkingfeeling]

19. Kiss democracy good bye.

[Duppers]

115. With greatest optimism

I would hope that there are just enough halfway reasonable repub voters that would leave that party and assure a democratic president.

[bdamomma]

119. Hopefully

that will happen.

[FM123]

20. So now any repug who wants to run has to do it as an Independent?

Actually, I would love to have them split the votes away from trumpy, it might just help us Dems.

[janx]

33. The RNC and the Trump campaign joined financial forces

some time back. I guess this just makes it official.

[Duppers]

117. Yes!

[Bengus81]

21. Didn't Hitler do something similar??

[DFW]

35. No, he never ran in a Republican Party primary

Although these days, it seems he would win hands down.

[uponit7771]

46. Not till he got emergency powers after Reichstag fire. Then he outlawed opposition power or killed

... them

[JHB]

68. Only in the sense that the Night of the Long Knives purge was "similar"...

Both that and this were meant to suppress and eliminate elements within The Leader's party that could potentially challenge him for intra-party support.

Two significant differences are that the NotLN was also a straight-up terror campaign against any challenge, and this RNC proposal isn't a done deal -- yet.

[Renew Deal]

22. This also could mean that a lot of republicans vote in the Democratic primary

It's a much larger audience

[scarytomcat]

53. they have to have down ballot races

how are they going to have candidates for people like mcTurtle that don't run again or some moderates they want out

[scarytomcat]

54. this has to be bullshite

they cannot be serious

[VMA131Marine]

24. Now imagine if Trump is impeached and has to resign

and the GOP have no primaries scheduled!

[myohmy2]

25. interesting...

...it's time for any remaining decent Republican to become Independent and vote with the Democrats to save our country...

...eventually every Republican will have to choose: Country or Party

...so far, it's been Party...

[Duppers]

118. Oh yes!

Said much the same.

[doc03]

27. Can they do that? I am sure someone somewhere will run against Trump nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

42. Someone else could run, but the RNC is trying to tie up its money for Trump

so challengers couldn't get any of it. I think this will end up biting them on the ass, bigly.

[doc03]

67. They are willing to bet the farm on that criminal lying scum? Amazing! nt

[pecosbob]

88. Dems do this as well (speaking specifically about restricting party spending to incumbents)

the only danger is that they will get some one percenters backing their own horses.

[musicblind]

72. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan already announced. n/t

[Claritie Pixie]

28. Who is Zeke Miller and why should I go bananas over his tweet?

[janx]

31. AP White House reporter. n/t

[dewsgirl]

37. Highly reliable reporter.

[OnDoutside]

32. Excellent. Terrible cowardice by the GOP. This will be a PR disaster.

[dewsgirl]

36. OMG I thought this was satire. How can they do this?

[DFW]

38. It's a sad day when it's unclear if this was a joke or not.

Although "his effective presidency" is kinda strong. The number of Republicans that truly find his presidency "effective" can't be very large, although 99% of them would vote for him regardless.

[uponit7771]

52. +1

[Bengus81]

39. We should just anoint Trump as Fuehrer and be done with it.............

I can't even believe this BS could be legal.

[Stuart G]

40. This NOT at CNN..check it out... If this were real, wouldn't it be there?

https://www.cnn.com/

I looked at CNN politics at this link, not there either:

https://www.cnn.com/politics

[Bengus81]

41. Well...I've seen late breaking stuff take a while to hit CNN but..........

[Chiyo-chichi]

48. The RNC was talking about amending the rules to prevent a primary challenge a few weeks ago...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11614044

Now this follows?

[Renew Deal]

60. The RW Washington Times has it

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/23/rnc-resolutions-committee-unanimously-approves-mea

[cynatnite]

43. This has been talked about for a little while...

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/681987077/rnc-members-want-to-block-a-primary-challenge-to-trump-but-the-rules-may-stop-th


They don't want to risk a primary challenge for fear that repubs in general might vote for someone other than trump and cost him his office.

It's not big news because tRump is expected to remain the repub nominee and no challenger will be able to unseat him.

[janx]

50. Yep. And it's not a done deal. n/t

[Mr.Bill]

87. Mueller's report when published

could completely change that dynamic.

[leftofcool]

44. Good, let them put all their eggs (shitstains) in one basket.

Any Republican can then run as an Indy and peel off votes for Democrats.

[riversedge]

59. That would be grand

[grantcart]

47. Your headline is seriously misleading. Primaries are run by the states

And can't be cancelled by the party.

The convention can rule to not seat them but that is about it.

[janx]

51. Right. The reporter did not include that headline. n/t

[Renew Deal]

61. This is not correct

The parties decide how to nominate candidates. A primary is not necessary. It's an accommodation provided by states.

[grantcart]

125. You are incorrect. Primary elections are decided by state legislatures not the party

Usually there is a consensus between the state parties on caucus or primary elections.

Primary elections are under the authority of the Secretary of State based on laws passed by the legislature.

The parties can decide to accept the delegates or not.

In 2008, for example, Michigan and Florida legislatures voted to move their primaries to compete with Iowa and New Hampshire. The parties challenged in court. The Michigan Supreme Court ( I forget what happened in Florida) ruled for the early primary and the parties lost.

The Democratic Presidential candidates had pledged not to campaign in a state that jumped the schedule and largely kept the agreement. After the primary the DNC ruled that none of the delegates would be seated. They later allowed the delegation to be seated but delegates would only get 1/2 a vote. After Obama secured the nomination and the legislature agreed to cancel early primaries in the future the delegation was seated with full voting rights.

The headline is clearly incorrect.

[scarytomcat]

49. that is just the presidential primary

they will have to have down ballot primaries
but picking your top spot this far out is totally crazy even as he falls in the polls
but it will make it easier on him if he is in jail

[Achilleaze]

55. Following Putin's directives to the letter

Whole freaking GOP just jumped the Treason-Against-the-USA shark.

[HopeAgain]

56. I don't think that is what it means

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">RNC resolutions committee did not consider a resolution more explicitly endorsing Trump for re-election because no member of the committee offered it up.</p>— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) <a href="

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[regnaD kciN]

62. Uh...where does this tweet say they're canceling the primary...?

It just seems to be a statement supporting Trump.

[democratisphere]

63. Now I have a much better understanding of how Hitler came into power

and stayed in power for as long as he did.

[bluestarone]

65. GREAT if true maybe

REPUB donations will cease?

[former9thward]

66. This has nothing to do with presidential primaries.

How you got that from the tweet I have no idea.

[musicblind]

70. What happens to Larry Hogan?

He's the Republican Governor from Maryland and already announced his candidacy to primary Trump.

He did a press conference and everything. Can they just tell him 'no' now?

[NastyRiffraff]

71. Even I didn't think they'd go this far

Just...wow. My heart is actually racing. In fear.

They can't cancel the election...can they?

[Ohiogal]

73. So they are all in

on cementing their legacy as the party of racists.

Good God....

[Rizen]

77. Republicans are pathetic clowns that always fall in line.

Even if that means worshiping traitors and criminals.

[vlyons]

80. Traitors sticking together

Hey, don't forget that the RNC took Russian rubles.

[Equinox Moon]

81. This is how a new political party will develop

[DinahMoeHum]

82. Whatever they're smoking, steer clear of it.

[Stonepounder]

83. Actually, the RNC Resolutions Committee and/or the entire RNC can't cancel the Primaries.

They can sit them out. They can refuse to endorse a candidate. They can endorse Trump regardless of who wins the Primaries. But, they can't force the states not to hold them. The STATES get to decide how to do elections.

U.S. Constitution
Article 1

Section. 4:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

I don't think SCOTUS would allow Congress to get rid of Primaries.

[notdarkyet]

85. Putting all their eggs in the loser basket. Trump will never win re-election after these disgusting

Displays over the wall, the stou. He has put his disgusting self on full display and voters are peeling off. The more people see of him the less they like him. He will not hurt millions of workers and get any votes.

[PeeJ52]

86. This country has gone absolutely mad...

Canada here I come...

[smirkymonkey]

89. Is this for real?

Can they really do this? Rotten motherfuckers!

[Mr. Ected]

91. GOP offers Devil's Promise to Trump's Base

We won't pull our support if you don't.

We can only pray that the political and judicial counterforce generated by the Mueller investigation is numbered in the googleplex megatons range.

[Glimmer of Hope]

93. Who came up with this?

I guess the ego needed to be fed today.

[liberalmuse]

94. Freeing up voters and resources.

So they can fuck with our primaries. Totalitarian dictatorship, friends.

[StevieM]

95. Note to Hillary bashers: this is what a rigged primary looks like. (eom)

[Honeycombe8]

96. Wow. I guess money DOES talk.

They'll all retire to their Swiss villas, when this is all over, courtesy of the Trump organization and Putin.

This is really shocking, and disturbing. There is no role for democracy in the GOP.

[Gothmog]

101. I would not be surprised to see the GOP cancel the primaries

[guillaumeb]

102. Is the "President for life" proclamation far behind?

[shanny]

104. RNC doesn't have that power. States do.

All they can do is not endorse or fund opponents.

[AlexSFCA]

105. has that ever happened before?

[Codeine]

106. Doesn't work that way. nt

[2naSalit]

107. The aim is to get rid of elections all together, pesky things anyway...

I was surprised we actually had the last on.

[world wide wally]

109. I guess this is a trial run for cancelling the general election in 2020.

Just working out the kinks.

[Ferrets are Cool]

112. Who will run the campaign of a prison occupier?

[0rganism]

114. the only reason they would do this is if their fix is already in for 2020

the bigwigs in the GOP have good reasons to expect that
* Trump will not be impeached
* Trump and his first-circle of cronies will not be indicted for serious crimes
* Trump will over-perform compared to 2016

they need a war, and they may need it sooner than i thought.

[workinclasszero]

116. Hmm where have we seen this before?

Oh right....

[Kurt V.]

121. it doesn't matter if this true or not.

Election integrity laws need to be in place for 2020. mcconnell neads pressure on this single issue.

[roamer65]

124. States then need to remove the Repuke party from their ballots.

If it will not play democratically, then it should not be allowed into the election.

[Blue Owl]

126. Just imagine -- all those rotten eggs in trump's basket...

[UCmeNdc]

128. If states decide to run their own GOP primaries, will those count as far as the

National GOP is concerned?

[sunonmars]

129. Actually would mean anybody could go independent now with ease.

[DFW]

131. I am still not clear on one thing

WAS this a joke or not? If it's reality, then the Onion had better start preparing resumés for its staff.

[hughee99]

137. Could you imagine the outrage if the DNC backed a specific candidate

During the primary, or argued in court that they are under no legal obligation to be in unbiased during the primary? Surely all of us at the DU would be furious.