A group of influential Republicans describe a disturbing encounter with Team Trump that saw their communication devices confiscated and members stalked until they bent to the campaign's will, according to a new report.
Tabitha Walter, the executive director of the conservative group Eagle Forum, told the New York Times Thursday one Republican party official followed her so closely it created a "very hostile" atmosphere and raised suspicions about “strong-arming."
“Anywhere I would go get coffee and go to the bathroom, she would follow me around,” Walter reportedly said. “Any time I would take notes, she would read them.”
The setting was the closed-door policy committee meeting on July 8 where for the first time in years, the press was barred from covering the event during which former President Donald Trump's policy became Republican National Committee policy.
Members told the Times they were forced to pass the proposal without even being allowed to read it, despite the expectation that they would be given two days to debate and contribute to its contents.
When it was over, an outraged Gayle Ruzicka burst out of the venue to tell a local news outlet she'd spent thousands of dollars to participate, but, "They rolled us."
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The activist later told the Times she'd been promised the chance to review the policy, but delegates instead were handed a draft to which no amendments would be considered.
“It was not honest," Ruzicka said. "We ended up voting on the platform we hadn’t even read yet.”
Delegate Alex Kolodin told the Times his laptop and printer were confiscated and was also surprised to learn he would have absolutely no say in the final policy platform.
“The will of the body is the will of the body,” Kolodin reportedly said. “This is all for show.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) presided over the meeting and made it clear to attendees that "Trump’s team controlled the room," the Times reports.
That policy was crafted by Trump who made it clear to his team he wanted it to be his alone — and he wanted it to be vague. The Times notes that while Trump's platform promises to value the "sanctity of marriage," it never explains what that means.
"[Trump] stressed that he did not want to define marriage as between one man and one woman," the Times reports. "One person involved in the process recalled Mr. Trump saying privately, 'don’t define it.'"
The platform stunned mainstay Republicans presented with the startling document at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, one of whom went so far as to call it "a full on frontal assault on conservatism."
The Times argues this disturbing break from RNC precedent foreshadows the strong-arm administration Trump would bring to the White House should he win in November.
Writes the Times, "It showcases a candidate who is increasingly confident of his own vision and who has surrounded himself with a team that knows both the rules and how to bend them."
