Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday brushed off criticism of the organization’s debate ultimatum from a former senior advisor to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
“This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Priebus to respond to Eric Fehrnstrom’s tweet, which said it was “bad optics” for the party and a “loser’s game” to ban CNN and NBC from partnering with the RNC for 2016 presidential debates over pending film projects about Hillary Clinton.
“Well, I don’t know if his Etch a Sketch is on tilt, George,” Priebus said. “I’m not really taking advice from Eric Fehrnstrom right now.”
The remark referenced Fehrnstrom’s memorable comment on the 2012 campaign trail that seemed to imply Romney would change his position on key issues as need be to get elected.
“Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign,” Fehrnstrom said. “Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”
Correction: This post has been updated to correct the title of the show to “This Week.”
