Donald Trump's campaign strategist Paul Manafort said that protests needed to be filed soon, but offered no timeline. | AP Photo Manafort vows Trump will protest Missouri, Colorado results

Donald Trump’s new campaign strategist vowed Sunday to protest the delegate-selection results in Missouri and Colorado.

“We will be filing protests. Missouri, we’ll be filing protests. Colorado, we’re going to be filing protests. … You saw it in Colorado last week, where the voters were left out of the process,” Paul Manafort said on ABC’s “This Week.”


“The Cruz campaign, even in the closed systems like Colorado, like Missouri, they’re not playing by their own rules,” Manafort charged, accusing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign of having to “muscle things,” without being specific.

Manafort said protests needed to be filed soon, but he offered no timeline.

“If you’re so confident about getting to 1,237 [delegates] before Cleveland, then why does Mr. Trump complain about the rules?” host George Stephanopoulos asked.

Trump is “complaining about the system,” Manafort said. “That’s the point that keeps getting lost here. He’s saying we’re playing by the — we’re playing to open up the process. We’re trying to let voters decide, members of the Republican Party, independents, decide who the Republican nominee should be — not the party bosses. That’s the system of the 1920s, not 2016.”

“These rules have to change, and that’s what he’s saying,” Manafort said. “As president and as leader of the Republican Party, what he’s saying is he’s going to open up the system. He’s going to end the nature that rigs it and keeps people out. He’s not blaming the chairman of the Republican Party or the [Republican National Committee], he’s blaming the process.”