The party rules that allowed Ted Cruz to sweep Colorado's Republican delegates without a popular vote are perfectly legitimate and designed to curb "mob rule" — despite Donald Trump's howls of protest, veteran GOP consultant Mary Matalin tells
Newsmax TV.
"It's been the process in the Republican Party for 160 years and it's been the process that our entire country was founded on," Matalin said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show.
"We're a representative republic, not a democracy, and the reason the Founders made it like that was to guard against mob rule…. I can understand why people would think it is counter intuitive to one-man, one-vote — but everybody's had this access to the same information, the same rules."
Watch Newsmax TV on
DirecTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get Newsmax TV on your cable system —
Click Here Now
Colorado Republicans canceled their presidential caucus last August and instead picked 37 delegates at the state convention, 34 of them Cruz supporters.
After last week's loss, Trump accused the Republican establishment of trying to destroy his chances of clinching the party's nomination, calling the process "a sham" and "a rigged, disgusting, dirty system" that's "stacked against me."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus fired back on Twitter that there was "nothing mysterious" about the Colorado GOP deciding last summer to drop a statewide vote.
"Nomination process known for a year + beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break," Priebus said in his tweet.
Matalin — an adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and campaign director for President George W. Bush — believes it was Cruz's aggressive campaigning in The Centennial State that helped the Texas senator's sweep.
"Cruz did go out to Colorado and he won over the crowd. There were a number of Trump people there that said Cruz won them over," Matalin told Malzberg.
"That's how getting the delegates is done, it's always been done that way and that's not an establishment thing, it's a prelude to what it takes to be in the Oval Office. If you think running for president is hard, try being president."
"These delegates … are very honored and very sought after and people are awarded them because they participate actively year-round, year after year at the grassroots for conservative and Republican causes. So Cruz just worked it better."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.