Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has said he will leave the GOP if Republican National Committee officials attempt to prevent Donald Trump’s nomination by brokering the convention next year. The statement comes after The Washington Post published a report saying party bosses have already conspired to do so. “If this was the beginning of the plan to subvert the will of the voters and replace them with the will of the political elite, I assure you Donald Trump will not be the only one leaving the party,” Carson said.

Carson's communications manager Doug Watts disagreed with this interpretation saying in an interview with The Daily Beast that the campaign had never discussed a third party option.

"His pledge to support the nominee is solid," Watts said after saying that he believes a brokered convention is "inevitable." He added: "Not a goddamn vote has been cast and they’re already meeting to see what they can do to tilt the table. It’s outrageous."

Watts claimed that the statement was meant to reflect that Carson opposed the idea of a secret meeting with party establishment weeks before anyone had actually voted. He also told The Daily Beast that it was "too hypothetical" to determine whether Carson would be open to being Trump's running mate.

—Gideon Resnick