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U.S. NEWS A3
Thursday 17 March 2016
Trump: Time to rally around me _ or expect voter riots
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to ward with plans to meet what her campaign man- Democratic nomination.
supporters at his primary election night event at his Mar-a-Lago Thursday to discuss the ager described as an “in- Trump urged Republi-
Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 15, 2016. At right is his prospect of rallying behind surmountable lead” in the cans to view the party’s
son Eric Trump and at left is campaign manager Corey Lewan- a third-party option, but no delegate count. nominating contest with
dowski. candidate had been iden- “We are confident that for the same sense of clarity.
tified to lead that effort. the first time in our nation’s During a round of calls to
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Meanwhile, Democratic history, the Democratic Par- morning television shows,
front-runner Hillary Clinton ty will nominate a woman he said some of the same
set her sights on a Novem- as their presidential nomi- Republican senators who
ber showdown with Trump. nee,” Robby Mook wrote in publicly criticize him have
Her sweep of Tuesday’s a memo to supporters. called him privately to say
five primary contests was Clinton has at least 1,599 they want to “become in-
a harsh blow to rival Ber- delegates to Sanders’ 844. volved” in his campaign
nie Sanders, giving Clinton It takes 2,383 to win the eventually. q
JULIE PACE can National Committee
member who worked on
STEVE PEOPLES Marco Rubio’s delegate
strategy until the Florida
Associated Press senator exited the race
Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Re- Barbour said Trump
“doesn’t deserve to be
publican leaders spent president,” but also said he
could ultimately support
Wednesday wavering the billionaire if he “can
convince me that he’s
between grudging ac- presidential material.”
Trump cautioned that his
ceptance and deep de- supporters would revolt if
he falls just short in the del-
nial about Donald Trump’s egate count and loses in a
rules fight.
likely ascent to the party’s “If you just disenfranchise
these people, I think you
presidential nomination. would have problems like
you’ve never seen before,”
An emboldened Trump Trump said on CNN’s “New
Day.”
warned that if the party Despite the deep concerns
about Trump within the
tried to block him, “You’d Republican Party, there
was little tangible action
have riots.” Wednesday that indicated
a way to stop the real es-
With at least three more tate mogul’s march toward
the general election.
states in his win column, There was no rush among
party leaders or donors to
Trump is now the only coalesce around Ted Cruz,
the only candidate in the
candidate with a path to race with even a long-
shot chance of overtak-
clinching the Republican ing Trump in the delegate
count. A small group of
nomination before the par- conservatives moved for-
ty’s convention in July. But
he still must do better in up-
coming contests to get the
necessary 1,237 delegates,
leaving some opponents
with a sliver of hope he can
still be stopped.
In the U.S. primary system,
voters in each state deter-
mine how many delegates
each candidate receives
and the delegates then
vote for the nominees at
the conventions where
each party selects its can-
didate.
“I still think it’s a very realis-
tic chance that nobody’s
going to have a majority of
the delegates,” said Henry
Barbour, a senior Republi-
