Priebus Says He Trusts Trump Won’t Violate Loyalty Pledge
“I’ve never had a situation where he has told me something and he hasn’t done it,” the Republican National Committee chairman says.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says despite Donald Trump’s recent declaration that he many not support the eventual GOP presidential nominee should he fail to win the nomination, he has faith that Trump will not go back on the loyalty pledge he signed last year.
“I’ve never had a situation where he has told me something and he hasn’t done it,” Priebus said in an interview on Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast on Thursday. “I don’t have any reason to distrust any of our candidates. Posturing and talking is different than actually violating. And they haven’t violated any pledge or any bit of loyalty to me.”
Priebus said if Trump becomes the nominee, he may need to soften his tone for the general election: “You do have to reach out to Hispanics, and black voters, and Asian voters, and you do have to watch your tone, and you do have to have a general-election message that builds and creates what I believe is the ultimate image of our party, which should be the open-door party.” He added that it’s unclear how running-mate selection would work if Republicans go to an open convention: “There’s no experts on this stuff because no one’s ever been through it. So anyone who thinks they know a lot about a multi-ballot conventions is lying because they’ve never done it.”
You can hear the entire interview, along with an in-depth conversation with Democratic strategist and superdelegate Donna Brazile—who says that the Democratic primary race is “taking a turn for the worse” but that she remains convinced the party will come together behind an eventual nominee—as well as Bloomberg Politics managing editor Craig Gordon, below.
- Listen on SoundCloud (or play below)