RNC Denies Trump’s Claim That Booing Crowd Was Stacked Against Him

The RNC has disputed claims that Donald Trump made Monday, when he told reporters that he was booed at Saturday night’s GOP debate only because the audience was all but stacked with establishment stooges.

As reported by The New York Times, Sean Spicer, an RNC spokesman, gave an estimate of the audience breakdown:

Of the approximately 1,600 people who attended, 300 tickets were given to Republican “grass-roots” activists and elected officials, 600 were divided evenly among the six candidates, and only 10 went to R.N.C. donors.

The remaining tickets, according to Mr. Spicer, went to the South Carolina Republican Party and to CBS, which hosted the debate.

Of those remaining seats, a senior official with the South Carolina Republican Party said there were no more than 300 donors in the audience.

Trump cited as evidence that the house was stacked the fact that Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were getting applause even though they were “very low” and “pretty low” in the polls. (It’s unclear which senator was “very low” and

which was “pretty low” in Trump’s estimation — according to the two most recent South Carolina polls, they are tied. Also dubious was his claim that “establishment” seat-fillers would be applauding for Cruz, who has made a campaign asset of his lack of support from mainstream Republicans.)

This is the latest volley in Trump’s ongoing battle with the RNC, with whom he signed a largely symbolic loyalty pledge back in September. Trump has promised not to mount an independent run for the Oval Office, so long as the committee treats him “fairly.” On Monday he said that pledge cut both ways, and that the RNC was in “default” of their obligations.

[h/t NYT]