Behind closed doors, GOP strategizes on how to block Trump

JUDY WOODRUFF:

And now to politics.

The rift in the Republican Party over Donald Trump shows no signs of mending. Just today, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced on social media that he will vote for Senator Ted Cruz in the Utah caucuses next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, as Trump marches closer to the 1,200-plus delegates he needs to secure the party's nomination, some party operatives are scrambling for an alternative. On Thursday, a group of conservative GOP activists held a closed-door meeting here in Washington to discuss how to block Trump from the nomination.

Here's Erick Erickson, who was one of the meeting's organizers, on FOX Business News Thursday:

ERICK ERICKSON, The Resurgent:

The Republicans, if they nominate Donald Trump, are going to nominate the only politician in America more unpopular and less trustworthy than Hillary Clinton. That's not where you start when you want to beat Hillary Clinton.

But that's the reality of that with him, and I'm not going to play a part of it.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

For his part, a Trump policy adviser pushed back today with a warning for the Republican Party.

Here is what Sam Clovis had to say on CNN's "NEW DAY":

SAM CLOVIS, National Co-Chairman, Trump Campaign:

I will tell you this. If the Republican Party comes into that convention, and jimmies with the rules and takes away the will of the people, the will of the Republicans and the Democrats and independents who voted for Mr. Trump, I will take off my credentials, I will leave the floor of that convention, and I will leave the Republican Party forever.