In many respects, Donald Trump appears to be learning about the delegate system as he goes along, and evidence suggests he’s not a huge fan. After calling the system “rigged” following his loss to Ted Cruz in Colorado, Trump continued his condemnations at a rally in Albany Tuesday night. “We thought we were having an election, and a number of months ago they decided to do it by you know what, right? They said we’ll do it by delegate,” he said. “Oh, isn’t that nice.”
He went on to give supporters his take on the delegate system:
The delegates were all there all waiting, and the head guy — in fact, one of them tweeting out today or said today by mistake and then they withdrew it something to the effect ‘See? Never Trump; look what we did never Trump.’ Because if I go to the voters of Colorado, we win Colorado. So it’s a crooked, crooked system.
“Crooked” is the same word Trump used to describe the system in an interview with Fox News on Monday, when he declared there had been “no voting” in Colorado. “The system is rigged,” he said. “The people out there are going crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians.” Which, of course, is how the system has always worked.
But Trump’s complaints serve to cement his claim of unfairness, giving him a platform on which to stand should he arrive in Cleveland with the majority of delegates only to find himself ousted by the Establishment. In other words, by making sure his supporters know how unfairly the System is treating him, he’s setting himself up to make good on his threats.
Unsurprisingly, Cruz responded to Trump’s complaints with palpable glee. “You may have noticed that when Donald loses, he gets very unhappy,” Cruz said at a rally in San Diego. “He yells and screams and stamps his foot. [But] Donald, it ain’t stealing when the voters vote against you — it’s the voters reclaiming sanity. As we know in the state of California, wine is something best served with cheese.”
Much like the state of California, Trump knows everything there is to know about wine (whine? whining? winning?) — he ended his speech with one of his greatest “winning” rants to date.
You are going to be so proud of your country. Because we’re gonna turn it around, and we’re gonna start winning again! We’re gonna win so much! We’re going to win at every level. We’re going to win economically. We’re going to win with the economy. We’re gonna win with military. We’re gonna win with health care and for our veterans. We’re gonna with every single facet.
We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, “Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore. Mr. President, it’s too much.” And I’ll say, “No, it isn’t!”
We have to keep winning. We have to win more! We’re gonna win more. We’re gonna win so much. I love you, Albany! Get out and vote. You will be so happy. I love you. Thank you. Thank you!
“We have to keep whining. We have to whine more! We’re gonna whine more.”
