Former GOP senator pleads with RNC to replace Trump

A former U.S. senator from New Hampshire and vehement Donald Trump critic is pleading with national Republican leaders to invoke their authority to remove him from the ticket, arguing that his comments Tuesday hinting at using gun violence to stop Hillary Clinton is "the last straw."

Gordon Humphrey, who backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the primary, wrote a letter Tuesday to New Hampshire's three representatives to the Republican National Committee — state party chairwoman Jennifer Horn, committeeman Steve Duprey and committeewoman Juliana Bergeron. He urged them to invoke a clause in the party's rules empowering RNC leadership and Chairman Reince Priebus to replace its nominee.


"If this is not the straw that breaks the camel's back, if this outrage is not sufficient to inspire courage in the Republican leadership, not just Reince Priebus but Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, then surely the Republican Party has lost its moral conscience," he said in a phone interview.

Bergeron rejected Humphrey's suggestion.

"While I have the greatest respect for Senator Humphrey, it is time to support the Republican candidate or we will be watching Hillary's inauguration," she said. "That said, I do sometimes wish Mr. Trump would choose his words more carefully so they could not be misconstrued."

Horn and Duprey were not immediately available for comment, nor were spokespeople for the Trump campaign and RNC.

Rule 9 of the national GOP rules permits RNC leaders to fill presidential candidate vacancies "which may occur by death, declination, or otherwise." Humphrey argues that the word "otherwise" would apply to Trump's case.

Trump said at a rally earlier Tuesday that "Second Amendment people" could prevent Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal justices to the bench.

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment,” he said. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

Trump's campaign later suggested was merely an acknowledgement of the political power of gun rights supporters. But Democrats — including Clinton's campaign and several members of Congress — and Trump's Republican critics immediately condemned the comments as an irresponsible incitement of violence.

Never Trump vows to continue fighting Former Senator Gordon J. Humphrey of Never Trump vows to continue fighting.

Humphrey told POLITICO he had yet to hear back from the New Hampshire RNC members. But he suggested that the 25th Amendment of the Constitution — which prescribes procedures for the vice president and cabinet to declare a president unfit to serve — should be viewed as precedent.

"The RNC would not be powerless if a candidate fell into a coma from which recovery was uncertain," he wrote in his letter. to the New Hampshire RNC members. "In that circumstance the RNC would act under a duty to the Party and a moral duty to the nation to replace the nominee. Likewise, when a candidate repeated [sic] evidences unsoundness of mind, the RNC has a duty to act. The time is now."

Humphrey led unsuccessful efforts at last month's Republican National Convention to reshape party rules to permit delegates to rebel against Trump rather than hand him the nomination.