OPINION: AZ Victory Lap! Busch surrenders, challenges dropped.
Thanks to the challengers, who courageously came forward to expose the plot to suspend the rules, Shelby Busch finally signs the statement I've called for since June 6th. We stopped it!
MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ - Thanks to the six alternates to the National Republican Convention who filed formal challenges to the credentials of Shelby Busch and five other delegates, it appears the threat posed to Trump’s nomination by Busch and her Flynn-linked anti-Republican cohort has been neutralized.
The Trump campaign contacted the challengers to ask them to file the challenges, which were written by RNC legal counsel and committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon. The basis of the challenge was a June 3rd training meeting and emails where Busch and parliamentarian Joe Neglia indicated their intention to conspire with other states to suspend the rules, “to protect Trump.”
Photographs of slides from the training meeting even mentioned how to motion to place a new candidate into nomination. Emails sent by Busch before and after that training session clearly indicated her and Neglia’s intention to train delegates on how to exercise their “rights” at convention.
Busch issued a statement that read, in part, “I have been in touch with the Trump Campaign and assured them neither me nor anyone I influence will participate in any disruption to the convention, including challenging the rules, platform, programming, or otherwise.”
That is exactly what I have been urging Busch to do for the last 2+ weeks. The Trump team and the RNC clearly recognize the threat Busch and her anti-Republican peers in other states pose. I suspect they’ll be tracking her every move very closely at the convention, and if she does take any action to disrupt the convention, it will look very bad for her.
Further, Joe Neglia was removed from the rules committee and given a meaningless but honorific position as an assistant parliamentarian.
The challenged delegates demonstrated their anti-Republican mindset by taking to social media to proclaim the challengers “liars,” “traitors,” and “bad actors” who had “made a deal with the devil” to form a “coup.” Shelby Busch put out a press release that claimed she was “1000% for Trump” but demonstrated the exact opposite by accusing - without evidence - one of the leaders of Trump’s campaign of offering bribes to challengers.
Busch also had her lap dog and chief propagandist, Brian Ference, write a couple stories about the incident, defending Busch and taking a victory lap after the challenges were dropped. Ference reiterated Busch’s claims from her press release and took it even further, demanding the resignation and firing of the leaders of Trump’s campaign.
They’re only 1000% for themselves. #antiRepublicans.
As of Tuesday, members of Trump’s team indicated to challengers that they were gung ho with the plan to remove the six delegates. Wednesday morning, there was a sudden u-turn. I suspect - and I’m not pinning this on any of my sources, it is my opinion - that Kari Lake stepped in to protect her friend and confident, Busch, from the challenges.
I recently reported on Lake’s campaign boss and handler, Caroline Wren, and showed her connections to Flynn and her involvement in organizing the march on the capital on J6. Had these challenges gone through, it would have been the first public demonstration of a significant rift between the Flynn camp and Trump’s campaign, and it stands to reason that Lake would intervene to prevent that.
James Blair, Political Director of the Trump campaign posted this statement on X, thanking the challengers:
One of the challengers, Tyler Farnsworth, wrote a statement on the delegate Telegram channel where he explained that he was asked by the Trump team to file the challenge and “when the President makes a request to help out, I felt that was the most appropriate thing to do.”
He explained his justification for his decision to file - and rescind - his challenge, expressed his disappointment with “juvenile rhetoric used toward fellow delegation members,” and his hope that “this delegation will move forward united in the cause of advancing Donald J. Trump back to the presidency!”
Farnsworth noted that, “I also believe the delegation should cease the use of the “Trump Bound, Every Round” phrase as we are all Trump bound by desire and by law and there is to be only one round - period.” He continued, “The insinuation that there will be more than one round lends credence to the potential for shenanigans, of which the Arizona Delegation will play no part.”
Chris Hamlet, one of the delegates who faced losing his credentials for his alleged role in plotting to disrupt the convention, responded to Farnsworth’s attempt at unifying the delegation by writing, “You’re an absolute liar. All six of you are liars, and you filed fraudulent challenges with zero evidence.”
AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda had an opportunity to tell Hamlet, a professing Christian, to man up and exhibit some grace and maturity, but instead she responded with, “Gina here, I’m closing the thread. It’s hurting the ability to function as a team. This will all be over in 24 hours.”
It’s not likely that it will all be over in 24 hours. I’ve been told this story will probably be reported soon by mainstream media outlets. We’ll see how they cover it.
Regardless, because of the courage of my sources in the original story and the six challengers, the threat Busch had posed has been neutralized. I have spoken with delegates in some of the other states where the Flynn-linked anti-Republicans also have a majority of delegates and conveyed that intel to the Trump team and the RNC. They are aware of the threat and are taking it seriously.
I am personally more at ease about the convention now than I have been in at any other time in the last three months.
I have been offered a guest pass to the national convention by the Michigan delegation and I look forward to covering that event! I can’t believe I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had in such a short time, and I’m very grateful for your support. MUCH more to come.
Keep on it we aren’t finished Pima County
Keep holding their feet to the fire