CNN had former Texas Republican Congressman, three-time presidential candidate and recipient of the machine’s insidious tactics Ron Paul on their show to talk about Rule 40, otherwise known as the “Ron Paul Rule,” or the “anti-Ron Paul Rule.”
In 2012, as you may remember, was a very interesting time in GOP politics. The likes of John Boehner and the Republican Party’s lawyers changed the rules on the fly and prevented Ron Paul from getting as many delegates as he earned and from threatening the nomination on the floor of the convention. One of the ways they accomplished this was imposing Rule 40. This was meant to hurt Dr. Paul, but now it’s proven to be karma since the GOP is now having a difficult time blocking Donald Trump.
The national news network explains what this rule is:
“The GOP’s “Rule 40(b)” requires candidates win the “support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight or more states” in order to have their named placed on the nominating ballot. The raised threshold — it had previously been a plurality from five states — helped to prevent Paul’s supporters from upstaging or distracting from the presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, on national television.”
Paul was asked about this over the weekend, and he stated that the party didn’t want his name to appear so they simply revised the rules in a short period of time.
“We had the numbers to allow my name to be put into nomination, but they wouldn’t do it,” Paul said. “I think it’s a bit of an irony and they deserve the problem. They’re terrified of competition, and now the establishment has competition that really looks strong and there’s a lot of people behind Trump. So this is a big problem for them.”
Does this mean Paul is supporting Trump? Hardly. He briefly averred that there is no difference between Trump and Hillary Clinton as they support much of the same policies. In fact, he noted that the media purposely discuss the personalities of the various campaigns, especially Trump, in order to evade the key issues at hand: the Federal Reserve, an interventionist foreign policy and the debt.
Ultimately, however, Paul thinks there could be a third-party contender who will be endorsed by establishment Republicans, such as two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“It will probably go to the floor, but I think Trump is going to win and I wouldn’t be surprised, if that happens, that you’re going to see another individual running, a third-party candidate,” he said. “Somebody that’s going to be supported by the establishment-type Republicans and those who can’t control Trump.”
Although Trump is sitting in the front seat of the Republican primaries with 678 delegates, he could still fall short of the more than 1,200 needed to secure the nomination by the time the convention takes place. With Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich staying in the race, Trump’s national poll numbers have fallen. He now sits in first place with single-digit support, which is alien thus far in the 2016 election cycle.
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