The first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland was marked by discord and moments of chaos Monday both inside and outside the convention arena. Hours before Donald Trump arrived on the convention floor, delegates opposed to Donald Trump attempted to stage a rebellion by calling for a roll call vote to oppose Donald Trump’s nomination.
Delegates: “Roll call vote! Roll call vote! Roll call vote!”
Dane Waters: “My name is Dane Waters. I’m co-founder of Delegates Unbound. It’s a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and the heart and soul of this country.”
Dane Waters, co-founder of Delegates Unbound, was seeking to change the party’s nominating rules to allow delegates to support alternative Republican candidates over Trump. Monday afternoon, the anti-Trump forces rattled the Trump campaign and Republican leadership by producing signatures from a majority of delegates from 11 states and territories, far more than the seven jurisdictions needed to force an up-or-down vote on the convention’s rules package. But the Trump campaign and Republican Party leadership quashed the rebellious faction by instead opting for a voice vote—which quickly descended into a shouting match in which Trump supporters overpowered the anti-Trump faction.