Steele Won’t Defend ‘Unfortunate’ RNC Presentation (VIDEO)

RNC chairman Michael Steele
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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared on Fox News this afternoon, and had to answer some tough questions about the recent internal fundraising presentation that included negative depictions of President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and the RNC’s own donors.

The fundraising presentation, which was originally reported by the Politico, included the infamous illustration of Obama as the Joker, and also compared Pelosi to Cruella de Vil. It also directed how to appeal to “ego-driven” large donors, and to appeal to small donors through “fear” and “extreme negative feelings” and “reactionary” attitudes against the Obama administration.

Steele said he just became aware of the presentation yesterday, and that the RNC is looking into it through an internal process. When asked by Megyn Kelly how to defend it, Steele responded: “Well you don’t defend it. It was unfortunate.”

Kelly asked Steele about “essentially ripping on its own donors in this” by referring to large donors as ego-driven and small donors as driven by fear. She asked Steele for his response.

“I’m trying to figure out what the intent behind – I mean, the words on paper don’t sound appealing. And certainly we love our donors and we thank them for the support that they’ve given us over the past year, and continue to give us,” said Steele. “I don’t know what the context, or how that was presented to this particular committee of individuals. I was told, that’s typically what people think about our donors — or think about donors generally. But that is not the case for our donors. Our donors are compassionate, concerned activists out there who support a party that they believe in. And we want that to continue.”

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