With Donald Trump securing first-place wins in most primaries on Super Tuesday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews set about tonight to cast Trump as the inevitable nominee and to paint the GOP as acting in an illegitimate fashion were it to attempt to thwart a Trump nomination should he head into Cleveland having won most state primaries. But as his guest Tom DeLay tried to explain, the rules dictate that the nomination is won by a majority of delegates, not a majority of primary wins.
"So no one has to beat him for him to lose?!" Matthews asked DeLay incredulously shortly after 10:30 p.m. Eastern on live MSNBC coverage of Super Tuesday results. "That's right," DeLay answered.
"No one has to beat him?" Matthews repeated. "No!" DeLay again answered.
"Let me ask you a question about politics," Matthews shot back:
The American people have watched how the primaries have decided who the nominees of both parties have for more than a half a century. Are you saying that a party can actually nominate someone who is not the leader in the primaries.
Well, "if that someone does not 1,237 votes [a simple majority of delegates] going into the [Republican] convention, then all hell could break loose," DeLay responded.
"And who would, in other words, they [the delegates on the floor] would deny the person who won the primaries the nomination," Matthews huffed, restating his question, "How do you deny the leader of the primaries, the winner of the primaries, the nomination? How do you do that?"
For his part, DeLay tried to patiently walk Matthews through the delegate math to show Trump is unlikely to enter Cleveland with a majority of delegates in his pocket.
"Who do you nominate instead of the winner?" Matthews demanded, as DeLay explained how it's most likely Trump will enter Cleveland without an outright majority of delegates.
"I hear this logic, but what doesn't come through is any, any, precedent to deny the winners of the primaries the nomination," Matthews vented.
"What happens if Trump is the leader going into Cleveland with the most delegates, and you guys say we've got this other guy we're thinking about we're going to nominate, Paul Ryan, or somebody, and he says, 'OK, I'm gone!' And I'm gone, and Trump walks."
A slightly exasperated-sounding DeLay softly answered:
You have other candidates coming – no, excuse me. You have other candidates coming in with delegates. You'll have Cruz in there with a lot of delegates. You'll have Rubio in there with a lot of delegates.
"OK, we're going in circles here," Matthews shot back. "You think that the Republican Party, to break it down, can change precedent," he added, before DeLay interrupted, "It's not precedent! It's following the rules of the party. It has nothing to do with precedent. It has everything to do with collecting the delegates."
Seeking to wrap up this line of questioning, Matthews cut off DeLay and pronounced:
I'm going to make an announcement here. Tom DeLay has just said to Donald Trump even if you get most of the delegates going into the Cleveland convention, the national convention in Cleveland, even if you have most of the delegates, or almost all you need, we're going to give this to somebody else.
No, DeLay answered, Matthews was still missing the point:
The delegates get to choose. It is a party function. The party is putting up a nominee. The party delegates get to choose who the nominee is.
Now, if, in fact, Donald Trump heads into Cleveland just a few score or few hundred delegates shy of nomination, surely – being the consummate dealmaker he sets himself out to be – wrangling up the requisite vote to put him over the top in the delegate count should be no problem at all.
But, of course, Matthews is intent on helping portray Trump as the victim of a nefarious establishment backroom cabal that is seeking to disregard the wishes of the GOP party electorate. After all, it's the least he can do to help secure Barack Obama's virtual third term under Hillary Clinton.
