The Republican Party is “one-hundred percent the party of Trump now,” Corey Lewandowski said during a sit-down interview with Breitbart News at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
Lewandowski, who was former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and is the chairman of the New Hampshire delegation at the RNC, spoke to Breitbart’s Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle about his state’s swing toward Trump.
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“Boy, how things have changed from just eight years ago. [During the] 2016 election — I was there from the very beginning, before the escalator ride — there was a lot of consternation. As a matter of fact, [at] the 2016 convention, there was this notion that there was going to be a floor fight,” Lewandowski reflected.
Donald Trump has been declared the Republican nominee three times in a row, in 2016, 2020, and now 2024, with Monday’s near-unanimous support from delegates solidifying his presidential candidacy ahead of November. While Trump has dominated the last two conventions, Trump received roughly 70 percent of support from delegates in 2016 — 11 of those coming from New Hampshire — with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) coming behind him with nearly 20 percent support.
“And if you remember, Senator Cruz came on and never said Donald Trump’s name at that convention,” Lewandowski recalled. “This is very different.”
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Lewandowski, in part, credited former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) for releasing her nine delegates to support Trump ahead of the RNC and even before the assassination attempt of Trump on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. New Hampshire had 22 delegates total at the RNC, all of which supported Trump this year. In January, Trump notably blew Haley away in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, despite her being backed by millions in donor-class dollars. Her loss signaled the impending end of her presidential campaign.
“I’m not a big Nikki Haley fan — I’m just being honest with you because I’m a conservative. But that being said, she released her delegates, and that allowed us…the opportunity to give all 22 of our delegates to Donald Trump,” Lewandowski said.
“So I give her credit — she gave a fine speech last night. But listen, this is squarely Donald Trump’s party. Okay? We are so unified,” he continued. “The shooting had some impact on that, but before that even happened, whether you’re in the MAGA wing of the Republican Party like I am, or maybe you’re in a more moderate wing…it doesn’t matter now. Everybody has seen the failures of the Biden administration for the last three and a half years, and everybody believes that we can take this country in a different direction.”
