The #NeverTrump movement leaders were living in a world of self-delusion. We knew that, but they never gave up.

Washington Post

CLEVELAND — Republicans responsible for setting the party’s presidential nomination rules on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected attempts to formally unbind delegates to next week’s convention, effectively ending any serious attempt to rob Donald Trump of the GOP presidential nomination.

A vote came quickly Thursday night as part of a day-long marathon session of the Republican National Convention’s rules committee, which sets the rules of the meetings and how the party will pick its nominee in 2020.

The rejection of the “unbinding” proposal was so overwhelming that committee leaders opted not to record the tally. Trump supporters on the committee quickly exercised procedural tactics to effectively kill any attempt to revive the issue — and to codify that delegates are indeed bound to vote for the results of state caucuses and primaries.

Paul Manafort, the chairman of the Trump campaign, heralded the win, tweeting that an insurrection was “crushed.”

And yet, the hard core #NeverTrumpers still haven’t given up:

RedState

Senator Mike Lee Warns of Revolt, Following RNC’s Defeat of the Free the Delegates Movement

In the battle to free the delegates at the GOP convention in Cleveland next week, it seems there has been a victor.

It’s not America.

Utah Senator Mike Lee stood on the side of the those who opposed Donald Trump as nominee.

Lee, a U.S. Senator from Utah, stood and voted with a group of Republicans who were trying to allow all 2,472 delegates to vote according to their conscience and not necessarily for the candidate to whom they were pledged. He had arrived here the subject of interest and curiosity, and was lobbied and buttonholed by the Trump campaign before publicly supporting the effort to “free” the delegates.

…

This was with no debate, and nothing more than a voice vote.

Lee firmly denounced the efforts of the RNC and the pro-Trump cabal to squash any dissent.

“I hope whoever the nominee is going to be this time will in fact win over the delegates,” Lee said. “But rules like this are not going to help that.”

National Review was a bit more candid:

CLEVELAND — The “Never Trump” movement died with a whimper Thursday night. And to be clear: There was never a bang to begin with. After months of hype — and weeks of misleading media narratives — the efforts to derail Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention ended abruptly and undramatically here during a marathon meeting of the Convention Rules Committee. Fourteen hours after the committee hearing was gaveled into session, delegates delivered a swift and anticlimactic verdict on a proposal that would have allowed all delegates to vote their conscience on the convention floor next week.

…

One such delegate, Iowa committeeman Steve Scheffler, spoke only once during the day-long meeting. When the amendment came up to prevent the adoption of unbinding language, Scheffler walked to the microphone and sternly rebuked the leaders of the anti-Trump movement who, he said, urged allies to inundate him with emails and phone calls pressuring him to abandon Trump. They also, he complained, paid for a radio ad in Iowa attacking him. Looking to those colleagues, Scheffler admonished them to acknowledge their errors and unite around Trump. “It’s over, folks,” Scheffler said.