On Monday's All In, MSNBC's Joy Reid oddly asserted that "what could end up saving the Republican Party" from a Donald Trump nomination is "the snobbery of the Founding Fathers and the early proponents of the system, because the popular vote...doesn't choose the nominee. It's chosen at the state conventions. It's chosen by party insiders." Reid might have been thinking of the Electoral College system, where the voters in each state choose electors, who then vote for a specific nominee for president. [video below]
Host Chris Hayes turned to Reid and Buzzfeed News's McKay Coppins for their take on the upcoming primaries on Tuesday. Hayes cited how American Prospect's Sam Wong claimed that "[Marco] Rubio drops out and [John] Kasich stays in may be Trump's best option...counterintuitively, it is worse for Trump to win Ohio, since that would likely cause Kasich to withdraw. In that scenario, Trump would be left in a one-on-one match with Cruz."
Coppins largely agreed with Wong's analysis: "There is a good case to be made...if Ted Cruz and Trump [go] one-on-one...Trump would actually do fairly poorly against him...you'll see a lot of the Republican Party rally around Cruz." However, he continued that "it's still a stretch. I still think you want as many delegates away from Trump as possible."
Reid then gave her "snobbery of the Founding Fathers" line, and added that "where the empire can strike back is at a convention — so if that's your scenario — that you're going to deny Trump the nomination by trading delegates — you want Kasich in....Cruz being in means he can still go back to Iowa and still be messing with who are going to be the delegates."
The transcript of the relevant portion of the Coppins/Reid segment from MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes on March 14, 2016:
CHRIS HAYES: Sam Wong, who runs modeling on this for the American Prospect, basically says, 'In which [Marco] Rubio drops out and [John] Kasich stays — stays in, may be Trump's best option;' that 'counterintuitively, it is worse for Trump to win Ohio, since that would likely cause Kasich to withdraw. In that scenario, Trump would be left in a one-on-one match with Cruz.' Do you buy that?
MCKAY COPPINS, SR. POLITICAL WRITE, BUZZFEED NEWS: There — there's a solid case to be made. And, by the way, you can — you can see that Trump has tried for months to keep a lot of these — these candidates in by, sort of, like, helping them out in attacking other ones, saying — you know, Rubio is right about Ted Cruz lying; or Ted Cruz is right about Rubio doing this.
There is a good case to be made that if — you know, if Ted Cruz — if Ted Cruz and Trump one-on-one, that Trump would actually do fairly poorly against him; that because he hasn't hit 50 percent, Trump, in very many primaries — you know, you'll see a lot of the Republican Party rally around Cruz.
That said, it's still a stretch. I still think you want — you want as many delegates away from Trump as possible.
JOY REID: And I think because — you know, what could end up saving the Republican Party is, sort of, the snobbery of the Founding Fathers and the early proponents of — of the system, because — because the popular vote does not elect the nominee — or doesn't choose the nominee. It's chosen at the state conventions. It's chosen by party insiders. So where the empire can strike back is at a convention — so if that's your scenario — that you're going to deny Trump the nomination by trading delegates — you want Kasich in. You actually want him there, because you want him actively horse trading — because remember: Cruz being in means he can still go back to Iowa and still be messing with who are going to be the delegates.
