Donald Trump's campaign will have to fight for "every single delegate" as the GOP convention nears, former "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault said Wednesday, but she was surprised to hear that Sen. Ted Cruz's delegates can be "bodily removed" from the convention floor.
"There's so many underhanded things happening behind the scenes," Manigault, who was named the vice-chairperson of the Trump campaign's National Diversity Coalition, told
Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "We need every single voter [to] turn out for us."
But the "truth of the matter," she said, is the rules have changed, and "we need to be very aware of these things happening, because otherwise they will try to steal this away from us and that's the truth."
Meanwhile, Doug Wead, a former special assistant to President George H.W. Bush, told the program that Trump now has enough delegates to "seize control of the credentials committee," meaning that Trump "can decide whether some of these delegates that [Texas Sen. Ted] Cruz won in Arizona, or another primary that was actually won by Donald Trump, can be awarded to Cruz — or must they be bodily removed from the floor of the convention and replaced by Donald Trump delegates."
"Bodily removed? Can they do that?" Manigault asked.
Wead replied "that's what happened in 2012, to Ron Paul."
Earlier this week, Trump and his supporters announced the National Diversity Coalition at Trump Tower ahead of New York's primary,
reports The Wall Street Journal. The new group consists mostly of black pastors who last year endorsed Trump for president.
Manigault was on stage during the announcement, made by Pastor Darrell Scott of Cleveland, and was joined by long-time Trump adviser Michael Cohen, a white man how has organized black clergy leaders to rally behind the GOP front-runner.
Bruce LeVell, a pastor and Trump supporter from Georgia, is the coalition's executive director.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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