During a contentious radio interview last week, John Whitbeck, the chair of the Virginia Republican Party, fiercely defended the party’s requirement that primary voters sign a statement saying they are Republican, rebutting the argument that it is an attempt to hurt Donald Trump.
The Virginia state board of elections earlier this month approved the state GOP’s plan to require residents voting in the Republican primary to sign a statement declaring that they are Republicans. Donald Trump on Sunday tore into the state Republican party over the pledge, arguing that it will keep new voters from participating in the primary.
In an interview on Dec. 21, radio host John Frederick told Whitbeck that the required statement would deter independent voters and hurt the GOP, according to audio surfaced by Buzzfeed News on Tuesday.
“You’ve lost seven consecutive state-wide races. The state is about to turn blue in ’16 if you get beat another time,” Frederick said. “Why would you do anything to turn off, discourage or otherwise turn away independents or people who haven’t participated in the process for some time or conservative Democrats that might want to change over — why would you do anything but encourage them to get involved?”
Whitbeck noted that some states only allow those registered with the party to vote in primaries and argued that the pledge would help the GOP collect data on Republican voters in Virginia.
Frederick later said that the Republican party would not have proposed the pledge if Donald Trump were not on the primary ballot.
“You keep going back to this notion that somehow this is about one campaign or one candidate. It’s not. And the evidence is clear and you know it,” Whitbeck responded.
But Frederick insisted that “the whole thing is designed to stop Trump.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Whitbeck said in response. “You know what? That is the most absurd statement that’s been made in the entire exchange. That somehow we were targeting one candidate. That’s absurd and you know it. Come on. I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
“You don’t have a response,” Frederick hit back.
“No, my response is that’s absurd,” Whitbeck replied. “You know that’s absurd. You know it’s absurd, you’re just trying to increase the anger of your listeners out there and get them all riled up. You know full well that’s absurd. We’re not targeting any particular campaign. That’s ridiculous, absurd, and it’s beneath you to say it — beneath you to say it.”
Earlier in the interview, the GOP chairman noted that the state Republican party notified the Republican presidential campaigns in September about the plan to require primary voters to sign a statement. He said that at the time, none of the campaigns raised any objections.
A few days after Frederick’s interview with Whitbeck, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski joined Frederick on his show, according to Buzzfeed. Lewandowski said that Whitbeck’s statement that the campaigns were notified of the pledge and did not object was “not accurate.”
Listen to Frederick’s interview with Whitbeck:
