Chaos erupts as anti-Trump effort fails

CLEVELAND - An effort by those hostile to Donald Trump failed in an effort to force a roll call vote on the convention rules here Monday afternoon, prompting chaos on the floor and reports on social media, declared false by Iowa party leaders, that the state delegation had walked off the floor.

Never Trump forces have been pushing for weeks to allow delegates to vote for somebody other than him to be the party's nominee. But after efforts failed in the rules committee last week, the anti-Trump forces pushed for a floor vote, a fight that came to a head Monday.

At first it appeared the convention was headed for a roll call vote on the rules, but convention chair, Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, reported that while nine states, a sufficient number, had requested it, three had withdrawn, thus squelching the effort.

That announcement prompted a loud roar from the floor, with anti-Trump forces protesting and supporters of the presumptive Republican nominee chanting his name.

Iowa delegate Cecil Steinmetz, who lives near Des Moines, walked off the floor and shortly after didn't appear interested in coming back.

'For what reason?” he asked. 'It's a sham.”

Steinmetz, who has been urging Iowa delegates to back somebody other than Trump, said there was majority support for a roll call vote and there was a stall to get some of the nine states to withdraw their support for a roll call vote.

Shortly after the chair's announcement, there were reports on Twitter the Iowa delegation had walked off the floor in protest. Party leaders said that wasn't true. 'Contrary to the reporting, Iowa's delegation did not walk off the floor,” GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann tweeted.

David Chung, a delegate from Cedar Rapids, said he did not witness it, either. 'I didn't sense that people were walking out,” he said. 'There were a lot of people in the Iowa delegation who were not on the floor during that vote.”

Nonetheless, Chung said he believed there should have been a roll call vote, and the sentiment on the floor overall was for one.

'I thought the vote was close and there should have been a roll call,” he said.

There also were conflicting reports about whether Iowa was one of the nine states seeking a roll call vote.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said the Iowa delegation initially backed a roll call vote but was one of the states that withdrew the request, according to a tweet from an Omaha World-Herald reporter. A Branstad spokesman, Ben Hammes, confirmed shortly after that was the case.

A short time later, however, he said he and the governor were mistaken and no request for a vote from Iowa was ever filed.

There were reports the Trump campaign threatened Iowa's first in the nation presidential caucuses over the matter. The Omaha World Herald reported that Branstad said that he and his son, Eric Branstad, Trump's state director in Iowa, pointed out to delegates their actions could jeopardize the state.

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli said Kaufmann told him threats were made, according to Talking Points Memo.

But Kaufmann told reporters Monday evening that he, not the Trump campaign, brought up the caucuses during the discussion. And he rejected the idea the state was threatened.

'There was no Trump campaign that was telling me anything. I just know intuitively that (as) first in the nation, we cannot be one of the states doing that,” he said. 'There's no marching orders.”

(Reporters Rod Boshart and Todd Dorman contributed to this article)