Rand Paul predicts a potential clash within the Republican party. | Getty Rand Paul on brokered convention chatter: 'They'll destroy the party'

Rand Paul on Friday sided with Ben Carson, who blasted the GOP establishment after reports that party insiders had begun discussing how to handle a brokered convention in July.

“If the establishment tries to block an outsider from winning the nomination, there’ll be war within the party, and they’ll destroy the party,” the Kentucky senator warned in an interview with Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner, first reported by BuzzFeed.


Paul and Carson were responding to a Thursday Washington Post report that nearly two-dozen establishment figures had raised the possibility of a brokered convention at a private dinner hosted by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday. Republicans in the meeting discussed laying the foundation for a floor fight and uniting behind an establishment alternative to dominant poll leader Donald Trump should no candidate receive a majority, according to the Post. (Other accounts disputed the extent to which a brokered convention was discussed.)

Paul said the establishment has to realize that across the country Republican voters are unhappy with GOP leaders in Washington. “And they’re sick and tired of it,” he said. “So if they see their will thwarted through the primary process, I think you’re gonna find that there’ll be a war declared or there’ll be a war that the establishment has decided to declare on the grassroots, and it’s gonna be a real problem.”

In a statement released by his campaign early Friday, Carson said GOP leaders should continue having similar meetings if they want to destroy the party, which he threatened to leave. “If this was the beginning of a plan to subvert the will of the voters and replace it with the will of the political elite, I assure you Donald Trump will not be the only one leaving the party,” he said.

Sean Spicer, chief strategist for the RNC, downplayed the significance of Monday's dinner, insisting that Trump was only a topic of discussion for roughly four minutes of the two-hour event. Spicer didn’t attend the dinner but said he was briefed.