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Trump spokeswoman calls Colorado GOP convention a 'pyramid scheme'

Donald Trump’s campaign on Wednesday continued its attack on Colorado’s “rigged” convention system, calling what happened there this past weekend a “pyramid scheme.”

The Republican front-runner on Tuesday accused the party of changing the rules to block him from winning the nomination. The state’s Republican Party decided last August to cancel its presidential straw poll, a move that prevented its delegates from being bound to a particular candidate.

Trump has said he knows the rules “very well” but that they’re stacked against him. Trump national spokeswoman Katrina Pierson on Wednesday told MSNBC that Trump has merely been “identifying the rigged part of the system.”

“What they’ve done is put in a pyramid scheme, essentially, to choose delegates,” Pierson said. “For example, in Colorado, if you have 3,800 people show up to be delegates, you would expect those who have been credentialed and have their names on the ballot to actually receive credentials and be on the ballot. And that’s simply not what happened.”

Instead, she said, Trump supporters were either denied credentials or didn’t have their names on the ballot. Those who did, she added, couldn’t advance through the system “because this is the party system choosing those delegates” and it's designed to stop political outsiders.

“That’s one of the reasons why Colorado changed their rules back in August. Mr. Trump entered the race in June,” she said. “When people who make the rules can change them in the middle of the game, that’s a problem. Yes, Mr. Trump is doing very well, but it’s been despite the system that’s been in place, which is exactly why we’re gonna move forward and fight for these delegates even though we know that the party leaders have already said they want to stop Mr. Trump from reaching these delegates and we see the exact same tactics taking place in Indiana as we speak.”

RNC chairman Reince Priebus has pushed back on the Trump camp's complaints, tweeting on Tuesday night, "Nomination process known for a year + beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break."

And Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, who endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio before he dropped out in March, also this week defended his state's delegate-election system.

“.@tedcruz showed up to the @cologop convention. @realDonaldTrump only sent a surrogate. Cruz swept. Elections are won by those who show up,” he tweeted on Monday. “I've attended CO GOP conventions for years. It requires organization & attn to grassroots to win. Cruz had it. Trump didn't. End of story.”