Trump on Possibility of Being Denied GOP Nod at Convention: 'I Think You'd Have Riots'

Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump was asked by show co-host Chris Cuomo about the possibility he could be denied the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Cleveland later this summer.

Trump said he expected to have enough delegates before heading into the convention, but added that if he were just shy of the 1,237 requited to clinch the nomination and was ultimately denied it, there could be the possibility of “riots.”

“Once the battle is over, once the war is over, I think there really is a natural healing process and I’ve gotten along with people all my life,” Trump said. “This is actually a little bit unusual. I’ve gotten along very well with people and I think it’ll happen again and I believe it will. Now, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’ll go along the same path, which has obviously been an effective path. I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots.”

“I’m representing a tremendous, many, many millions of people. In many cases, first time voters,” he continued. “These are people that haven’t voted because they never believed in the system, they didn’t like candidates, etc., that are 40 and 50 and 60 years old and they’ve never voted before. Many of those people, many Democrats, many independents coming in. That’s what the big story is really, Chris. I mean, the really big story is how many people are voting in these primaries. The numbers are astronomical. Now, if you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it but I think bad things would happen.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor