Syndicated conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer took Donald Trump to task during Monday’s Special Report panel for his long-winded complaints about the delegate selection process with Krauthammer noting that if Trump can’t handle the selection of convention delegates in Colorado, then he might not be able to take on the Chinese.
In addition, Krauthammer noted that Trump’s many detractors never expressed vocal outrage at the fact that the billionaire will have all 99 delegates from Florida back him even though he got only 47 percent of the vote (thanks to the state’s winner-take-all format).
Krauthammer identified that Trump and his supporters seem to have the appetite for a conversation about a nationwide primary, but now’s not the time to have that with the rules already having been set and the convention a handful of months away.
“The fact is, we have a very complicated legacy system. 100 years ago, it was all the bosses and they chose the delegates, since 1968 we’ve democratized it, each state has done it in a different way,” he added.
Moments later, the astute writer alluded to the fact that “everybody's had the rules for about a year and everybody had a chance to go after the delegates” and so Trump has more or less lost fair and square.
However, Krauthammer closed with the crux of his argument about how Trump would do on the global stage against our allies and adversaries if he encountered troubles with Coloardo Republicans:
You know, Trump says in negotiations with the nefarious Chinese and Mexicans and Japanese, he's going to win, they've been killing us, they're so smart, but how is he going to win? He's going to have the best people? Well, if you can't handle the Colorado delegate selection process, how is he going to handle the nefarious Chinese?
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on April 11 can be found below.
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
April 11, 2016
6:41 p.m. Eastern
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Look, I think the assumption that Trump is making, his supporters are making is that the only really fairway to do this would be something like a national primary, to have a direct correlation between the number of votes you get, and number of delegates. But, you know, in Florida, Trump wins 47 percent of the vote, he gets 100 percent of the delegates, I didn't hear anybody complaining about the unfairness. The fact is, we have a very complicated legacy system. 100 years ago, it was all the bosses and they chose the delegates, since 1968 we’ve democratized it, each state has done it in a different way. Colorado has a very odd way to do it, in the past, it's had to caucus for example, but they were called beauty contests and this actually occurred in other states, there's less of it now. What you would have a voter even a primary and it wouldn't count to the allocation of delegates, that would be done separately and the fact is, everybody's had the rules for about a year and everybody had a chance to go after the delegates. You know, Trump says in negotiations with the nefarious Chinese and Mexicans and Japanese, he's going to win, they've been killing us, they're so smart, but how is he going to win? He's going to have the best people? Well, if you can't handle the Colorado delegate selection process, how is he going to handle the nefarious Chinese?
BRET BAIER: It is simple to understand, though, one vote, you know, and people kind of say, what happened to my vote in Colorado?
KRAUTHAMMER: What happened to the 53 percent of the votes in Florida of those who do not support Trump? I don't think they have any complaint that Trump has all the delegates cause those are the rules going in. Everybody understood them and accepted them.
(....)
6:45 p.m. Eastern
KRAUTHAMMER: All I want to say is, we have a crazy sort of system which is federalized. We have that in the House, in the Senate and in presidential elections. The Senate of Wyoming has the same number of votes as New York. We do not have a straight electoral democracy. The electoral college distorts, we had them in 2000, you will lose the popular, and you win the election. If we want to rationalize it, I'm all in favor of it. If you want to do — chose a nominee on the basis of a few primaries, national, regional, let's do it, but the system is the system and I don't think it was designed to stop Donald Trump because it was designed before he came into the primaries.
