Wednesday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s complaints about the GOP nominating process being “rigged” were not valid.
Partial transcript as follows:
BLITZER: So Donald Trump says you should be ashamed of yourself for the Republican delegate selection process. He says it’s rigged. What do you say to that allegation?
PRIEBUS: Well, I mean, it’s clearly not. You know, look. all the candidates have the rules of the game, and they have actually all been participating in the rules. So in the case of Colorado, all of the candidates were participating. Let me just say in Colorado, it wasn’t just a weekend state convention. The convention system which is used by some states, not a lot, actually started a month ago in precincts where 60,000 people participated. Then it went to the county. Then the congressional districts, Wolf, and then to a state convention and the candidates all participated at every single step of the way. There were no complaints about that system, at least in Colorado. The second thing I’d say, Wolf, is that the RNC doesn’t subscribe for the states what states individually want to do with how they allocate their delegates. These are decisions that each of the states make under our rules, those decisions have to be submitted by October 1 of 2015, which they were. And by the way, the consequence of not submitting a plan by October 1, 2015 is that you’d then have to use the same delegate plan used in 2012. So this is all public. This has all been out there.
BLITZER: Let me just interrupt. But I understand all these rules are very complex and all the state Republican parties and have different rules. But he specifically said you, and you are the chairman of the Republican national committee. You should be ashamed of yourself for what’s going on. How extraordinary is that?
PRIEBUS: You know, I have no idea historically how extraordinary that is. Given the year we have, you know, I honestly don’t take it all that personally. But I do have to respond, though, when a campaign says that the RNC is, you know, rigging the rules. Just not the case. The rules have been set. They are in place. They’re not going to change in these states. And they are the same, for the next state of New York, they’re all out there. Everyone knows what the rules are. I have to respond though when the party of which I’m the chairman of is getting attacked, especially when it’s not true.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN