Seth Meyers: Donald Trump 'has only himself to blame' for failing to get Republican delegates
"Getting those delegates requires a strong organization on the ground," Meyers explained. "And so far, Trump has been very, very bad at this."
Trump is railing about Colorado Republicans' decision to cancel a typical presidential preference poll in favor of selecting delegates through caucuses. These delegates then cast their votes at the national party convention. In recent contests, Trump earned one delegate in North Dakota and zero delegates in Colorado.
"So Trump and his supporters are angry about the delegates, but Trump has only himself to blame," the host said. "His organization has proved incompetent when it comes to recruiting delegates, and he clearly lacks a basic understanding of the rules."
Recruiting delegates is important for two reasons. First, a candidate needs to get the required 1,237 delegate majority to be guaranteed the party nomination. And second, if no candidate gets to that threshold, then the process moves to a second vote (or contested convention). In that vote, delegates who were pledged to a candidate start becoming free to switch their votes. And that could mean the end of Trump's chances for president.
Meyers acknowledges that the rules are tricky, but he says Trump should be able to easily understand them. He then played a collection of clips of Trump explaining how intelligent he is.
"And yet in spite of his very good brain, Trump's campaign has made some of the dumbest mistakes possible in its delegate recruiting efforts," the host said. "For example, the state of Washington hasn't held its primary yet, but the campaign still needs to recruit people to serve as delegates there."
But the Trump campaign's Washington state campaign has been riddled with mistakes, including sending out an email looking for delegates that actually went to people in Washington, DC.
Still, there's one part of the complicated GOP delegate process at which Trump could excel, according to Meyers.
"Paying people off," he offered. "Because as it turns out, according to the rules, buying delegates might not be illegal. That's how crazy a contested convention could get."
Watch Meyers pick apart Trump's management of the delegate system below: