reince priebus said the committee would take 48 hours to rethink its election strategy, according to a republican operative briefed on the conversation. | ap reticent committee members are at odds with elected gop officials who are increasingly demanding action. by kyle cheney and ben schreckinger 10/08/16 04:13 pm edt pressure is mounting on the republican national committee to act decisively in the wake of the leaked video of donald trump's crude comments on women, placing many committee members at odds with elected gop officials across the nation who are increasingly demanding his ouster or renouncing their support. the rnc is taking the weekend to reevaluate its strategy while lawyers examine the legal hurdles to replacing trump with another nominee, according to republicans in touch with the committee. story continued below on friday night, rnc chair reince priebus told an aggrieved state party chair that he realized a public dumping of trump by the party would sink the nominee<u+2019>s remaining chances. he said the committee would take 48 hours to rethink its election strategy, according to a republican operative briefed on the conversation. the rnc saw the departure of two low-level field staffers in the states on friday night and is expecting more, according to the operative. a never-before-invoked republican national committee rule gives party leaders the authority to choose a new nominee. but committee members are loathe to use it, in part because of the chaos it would unleash -- which could ripple up and down the gop ticket -- and also because they are more insulated from the forces buffeting the members of congress and governors who are publicly calling for trump to be removed from ticket. "no one i've spoken with is in agreement with those you've mentioned," said west virginia rnc committeewoman melody potter in an email friday evening, referring to prominent members of congress who had called for a new nominee. "my opinion, trump should not be replaced." 2016 by katie glueck "these same people need to yell for hillary to be replaced since she is under investigation for her disappearing e-mails while she was secretary of state," potter added. like potter, whose home state senator shelley moore capito said saturday <u+201c>the appropriate next step may be for [trump]<u+2019>to reexamine his candidacy,<u+201d> illinois rnc committeewoman demetra demonte was in a different place than sen. mark kirk, who called for trump to drop out and for the party to choose an emergency replacement. demonte was succinct when asked friday if she agreed with kirk's call. "absolutely not," she said. the rnc is the only body with the authority to authorize a replacement nominee. and the rule at issue is known as rule 9 , which gives the committee the power to fill a vacancy for the presidential nomination by "death, declination or otherwise." while the word 'otherwise' has been interpreted by some to give the rnc wiggle room to force out a sitting nominee if it chooses, that interpretation is in dispute -- rnc sources told politico that lawyers agreed the committee couldn't oust trump under that rendering of the rules. <u+201c>rnc has an army of lawyers right now looking at rule 9 and ballot questions,<u+201d> said one republican strategist. conservative attorney jim bopp, a close ally of the rnc, said he doesn't believe the word "otherwise" authorizes the rnc to drop trump proactively. "this sentence only empowers the rnc to fill vacancies, not create them," he said, suggesting that the removal of a candidate by a court would fit the description. "the power to create a vacancy is a separate and independent power from the power to fill vacancies and that power would have to be conferred on the rnc by a specific rule, which does not exist. one option might be invoking rule 12 -- which gives the party the authority to amend its own rules -- but that would also be problematic because it requires at least 40 days to take effect. however, the committee -- which operates under roberts rules of order -- also appears to have the authority to suspend those restrictions with a two-thirds vote. but a former rnc chairman who is monitoring the situation said that a rule 12 invocation "won't happen." further complicating any effort to garner the supermajority needed to remove trump is the fact that many of the 168 rnc members earned their posts precisely because of their support for him. one of trump<u+2019>s top advisors, david bossie, is an rnc committeeman from maryland. others were quick to signal that they have no appetite to sideline trump less than five weeks from election day. 2016 by shane goldmacher one reason is that people are already voting. absentee ballots have been mailed by the hundreds of thousands <u+2014> if not millions <u+2014> already, and early voting has begun in a handful of states. trump's name is on the ballot in all of them. in addition, there are just 31 days left until election day -- and it would take time for the rnc to convene a meeting, which would have no guarantee of consensus. if rnc members did replace trump, voters would still likely have to cast their ballots for him and let members of the electoral college reconcile that with the party's replacement nominee. former new hampshire sen. gordon humphrey said the party should pursue that route to protect its down-ballot candidates from trump's potential drag. <u+201c>you know, trump is so deficient in so many ways that it<u+2019>s impossible to find one clinical word that covers all of those deficiencies. but i<u+2019>ve come up with one: he<u+2019>s a creep. he is morally depraved. he is a nasty sob in the way he treats others and speaks of others. he is an unfeeling cad," said humphrey, who helped lead the failed attempt at july's republican national convention to dislodge trump as the party's nominee. <u+201c>i call upon reince priebus, as trump<u+2019>s principal enabler to resign and for the rnc to meet in emergency session and to strip donald trump of the nomination.<u+201d> even as they consider eleventh-hour options, party officials are urging local operatives to remain calm and see if trump can weather the storm. matt pinnell, the rnc's state party director, has been fielding calls from chairmen around the country and urging them to stay the course, at least for now. steve house, the colorado gop chairman, called pinnell saturday morning with questions about how to potentially replace a nominee once his name has been printed on ballots that are about to be sent out. by burgess everett , seung min kim and rachael bade "i asked if we should change course in any way regarding resources, strategy and the answer was, 'no'," house said. "so we're just going to keep doing what we're doing and see what happens in the next 24 hours, especially with the debate." rnc spokesman sean spicer did not respond to a request for comment. but in a reflection of the lack of clarity surrounding the situation the rnc on saturday appeared to at least temporarily halt the operations of some of the <u+201c>victory<u+201d> program that is devoted to electing trump. in an email from the rnc to a victory program mail vendor, with the subject line <u+201c>hold on all projects,<u+201d> the committee asked the vendor to <u+201c>put a hold<u+201d> on mail production. trump told the wall street journal saturday <u+201c>there<u+2019>s zero chance i<u+2019>ll quit.<u+201d> "the media and establishment want me out of the race so badly - i will never drop out of the race, will never let my supporters down!" he tweeted late saturday afternoon. by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
rnc faces mounting pressure on trump - politico
kyle cheney ben schreckinger shane goldmacher burgess everett seung min kim rachael bade jack shafer