EXCLUSIVE: RNC Committeeman Calls For Rule Change To Protect Trump From 2020 Primary Challenger

Henry Rodgers

A Republican National Committee (RNC) committeeman sent an email to fellow members Wednesday, asking for an amendment to existing rules that would guarantee President Donald Trump become the presumptive GOP nominee in 2020.

RNC National committeeman for the Virgin Islands, Jevon O.A. Williams, sent the email to RNC members, which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, just hours after The Washington Post published an op-ed by Utah Republican Sen.-elect Mitt Romney that bashed Trump and his presidency. Williams said in order to close “loopholes in the re-nomination campaign,” the RNC should change the rules at their winter meeting in January so that no one in the party could run against Trump in the 2020 presidential campaign.

“Imagine my surprise when I read the junior senator-elect from Utah’s unprecedented rebuke of President Donald J. Trump in an op-ed on the pages of The Washington Post that ran before he was even sworn into office. I couldn’t believe this was coming from our party’s 2012 nominee, who, despite differences in politics, still professes to be a Republican. With Republicans like him who needs Democrats,” Williams said in the email to RNC members.

Williams said the rules in place do not take into account an incumbent president running for re-election, saying the proposed resolution would “declare” him the 2020 Republican presidential nominee.

“I am asking for your support to take the unprecedented step of amending the rules to close loopholes in the re-nomination campaign, including Rule 40. These rules, as I read them and has been reported in the press, didn’t take into account an incumbent president running for re-election,” Williams continued.

“Beyond a rules amendment, I also ask for your support of a resolution declaring the RNC’s unanimous and unequivocal endorsement of President Trump for re-nomination. This resolution would also declare him the presumptive nominee in 2020. I intend for both of these items to be acted upon at the winter meeting later this month, including, if necessary, by suspending the rules to take up this business,” he concluded.

Hours later, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Romney’s niece, responded to the op-ed, saying his “attack” in the op-ed is “disappointing and unproductive.”

Trump responded to the op-ed early Wednesday morning, saying he hopes Romney won’t be a “Flake” in the Senate, also saying “I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!”

Romney will be sworn in as the next senator from Utah Thursday.

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