Republican ideologues are worried the party platform may soften its stance on abortion at the behest of former President Donald Trump over a fear of losing this year's races.
Donald Trump has tried to distance himself recently from evangelicals who pressed for judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
After spending the year-plus after the landmark Supreme Court decision was overturned, Trump bragged that he was the one to make it happen when all other Republicans failed. Now that the election is drawing closer, however, Trump is falsely telling rallygoers that "everyone" wanted the law tossed back to the states to decide.
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Trump's conversations with lawmakers made it clear the priority is winning the election over the issue.
“We must win,” Trump said, according to The Associated Press. “We have to win.”
The next step is crafting the RNC platform, and hard-liners fear that Trump will demand that they moderate on choice at a time when evangelicals want to see the party double down.
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Two delegates have been stripped of their positions on the GOP platform committee, Politico reported Tuesday.
The move is "underscoring a broader fear among evangelicals and other social conservatives that the party is poised to moderate its stance on abortion at the direction" of Trump, the report said.
Several RNC members told Politico that two South Carolina delegates were blocked from the committee and replaced with Trump loyalists.
The report said the party officials, longtime GOP activist LaDonna Ryggs and former state party chair Chad Connelly, made the statement in official affidavits.
Those sworn statements claimed “interference from paid RNC staff … to circumvent the will of the delegation.”
A Trump campaign official disagreed with Connelly and Ryggs, saying they were never on the platform committee to begin with and that "two other people were the ones properly elected."
The platform committee hasn't met yet, said Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez.
Semafor reported earlier on Tuesday that the RNC plans to hold platform committee arguments in private and will not air the meetings publicly as they have done in the past.