Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, said on Thursday evening that he’s not concerned about the three remaining Republican presidential candidates’ comments suggesting they may break a pledge to support the eventual nominee.
“We’re going into potentially — we don’t know for sure — but potentially an open convention. So the candidates, I think, are going to posture a little bit as far as what they are willing to do and who they’re willing to support and who they’re not,” he told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.
Van Susteren asked Priebus if he discussed the pledge with Donald Trump at their Thursday afternoon meeting. Priebus would not say whether the topic came up, but then addressed whether it would be a problem if a candidate broke the pledge to support the eventual nominee.
“I’m not really worried about in regards supporting the eventual nominee or the party,” he said. “They’ve all agreed to that, by virtue of in one case signing our data agreement. They’re not going to get the data and the tools of the RNC, and run to be our nominee, and tell me that they’re not going to support the party. It doesn’t work that way. They’re running to be the nominee of our party.”
The RNC chair did offer a limited description of his meeting with Trump. He confirmed that the two spoke about the convention and emphasized that meetings with candidates while they are in town is not uncommon.
“We did talk about unity and working together and making sure when we go to Cleveland, and when we come out of Cleveland, that we’re working in the same direction,” Priebus said. “And part of that is just talking more and making sure that we’ve got open channels of communication, so pretty normal stuff actually.”
During an appearance on Fox News later on Thursday night, Trump also said that they discussed unity at the meeting.
“It was a very good meeting. We met with Reince Priebus and the staff. They are very good people, very actually terrific meeting, I think. It’s really a unity meeting,” Trump said. “I think they wanted to really discuss unity, and I like discussing unity too.”
When Fox’s Eric Bolling asked who called the meeting, Trump said it was “probably mutually called.”
