RNC chief issues stern warning over party loyalty
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus warned Sunday that his party would cut off anything it has given to presidential candidates if any of them withdraw support for the GOP.
"If any candidate actually declared that they don't want to support the party, of course we would" cut them off, Reince Priebus said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Priebus, however, said that hasn't happened and that the scenario is "hypothetical."
"No one's broken any pledge, no one has broken the commitment to our party," Priebus said.
Trump signed a pledge last year that committed him to supporting the eventual GOP nominee and not launching a third-party bid. He appeared to flip-flop on that pledge last week.
Priebus, who met with Trump at the RNC's headquarters in Washington on Thursday, weighed in on Trump's comments about the delegate process at the Republican National Convention this July. The GOP front-runner has insisted that he should win the nomination if he enters the convention with a plurality of delegates, but not necessarily the required majority of 1,237 delegates.
"You have to have a majority," Priebus said Sunday. "There's nothing that's going to change that rule. A majority of delegates is needed. Just like it was for Abe Lincoln in 1860. It's needed today."
He said the same applies to those who run for governor and for presidential candidates who compete in the general election.
"That's not gonna change," he continued.
Asked if Trump would have special challenges with Hispanics and women in the general election, Priebus said Trump has brought in "millions of new voters" to the Republican Party.
"If you look at the Democrats, they're in the ditch," he said.
Priebus said if FBI Director James Comey indicts Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state, Priebus said, "I've heard of Joe Biden coming in."
