RNC's Spicer: Rule 40B Won't Come Into Play at GOP Convention

"Rule 40b," or the revisions made by a Rules Committee for the 2012 Republican National Convention that blocked Libertarian Ron Paul out of the nomination process, won't come into play in this summer's convention, as Rules Committees create and revise rules for every convention, Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer said Monday.

"I think there is a lot of conversation about 40b," Spicer told CNN's Chris Cuomo on the "New Day" program. "If you keep going down the list, you get to 42 says all the rules in this convention or for this convention are temporary.

"These delegates that are elected, they will sit down and scrap the rules for this convention."

In 2012, the Rules Committee was made up mostly of Mitt Romney's delegates, said Spicer, but this time around, the delegates will likely either back Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been invoking 40b in his arguments against Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or Donald Trump, and will craft rules specific to this year's convention.

"This is the way it has been since the 1800s," Spicer said, denying that there have been any changes in the procedure.

Under the revisions, candidates must have won primaries in eight states in order to be eligible for nomination. The rule increased the number from five states when Paul had won enough states to pose a potential challenge against Romney.

But on Monday, Spicer explained that the 2016 Rules Committee "can make that number one, eight, 18, 28, or 58, if it wishes."

Spicer also denied complaints that the party wants to add in its own rules so that Kasich can be nominated.

"No matter how you slice it,  you need 1,237 delegates to become the nominee, plain and simple. No exceptions," said Spicer. "Whoever gets the majority of the delegates wins. The party doesn't want anything.

"The party's job is to administer a fair and transparent process . . . It is those people, those delegates elected by Republican voters that will decide. The party is simply the arbiter, the people who have put on the show to ensure they have a system to vote."

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