Politics Weekend Wrap-up: Republican National Committee members fight over rule change and two Democrats fight for New York

Here’s what happened over the weekend in politics.

GOP Rules Contested           

Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has not been shy about his displeasure with the GOP nomination system. Over the weekend, Trump complained that the process was “rigged” after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz secured all 14 delegates at the Wyoming Republican Convention.

Simultaneously, the Republican National Committee members fight ‘behind-the-scenes’ over a rule change that could make it harder for someone to swoop in last minute and win.

The Associated Press obtained a confidential email sent by Bruce Ash, RNC committeeman from Arizona, to all 55 of his fellow GOP rules committee members on Saturday. The harshly worded email was written days before party officials are to meet in Florida for preliminary discussions about what rules the GOP will use at its presidential nominating convention this July.

He said the convention’s presiding officer could use existing rules to “unilaterally reopen nominations to allow a candidate to be nominated that is viewed as more acceptable, which is exactly what so many rank-and-file Republicans across America fear.”

Ash wrote the email in light of top Republicans’ beliefs that the two front-runners, Cruz and Trump, would both likely lose in the general election come this fall. This consequently sparked conversations of how to replace them with an alternative in the summer convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Many Republican leaders are not in favor of party officials changing current convention rules (because they historically hate change) and they are afraid of being accused by the competing presidential candidates of altering the bylaws to influence the outcome.

The final decisions on the rules will be made by the convention’s 2,472 delegates, probably on the gathering’s first day, July 18.

Read more on this story here and here.

Democrats Fight For New York

Two Democratic nominees, two New Yorkers.

Hillary Rodham Clinton grew up in Illinois, but bought a home in Chappaqua, New York in 1999 before running for a representing seat in the U.S. Senate.

Bernie Sanders grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, but is currently the Senator of Vermont, and has lived there for decades.

While Sanders beats Clinton in New York accent and attitude, we’re unsure who will come out on top in the state this Tuesday.

According to RealClearPolitics, Clinton leads Sanders by almost 13 percentage points, and they say there is no foreseeable sign of him closing the gap.

During Clinton’s final day of campaigning before the New York primary, she visited recently-unionized workers at a car wash in Queens, referencing them as evidence of how “real change happens.” She told a small crowd at the Hi-Tek Wash & Lube: “It didn’t happen overnight… You work at it every day.”

The remark relates to her recent attacks on Sanders in which she criticizes him for promoting an “impossible-to-achieve political revolution.”

Sanders stated on Monday that: “The main point is, I think, we have a message that’s resonating all over this country… We have enthusiasm. We have energy. People understand it’s too late for establishment politics and economics. They want real change in the country. They want leadership to stand up to the billionaire class. That’s what we are providing.”

Read more here and here.

Join me next week for another Politics Weekend Wrap-up.

Email Léa Aliberti at [email protected].

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