Steele On Nightclub Charges: ‘I Was Very Angry’ (VIDEO)

RNC Chairman Michael Steele
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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, in his first interview since the committee was caught spending $2,000 at a bondage-themed nightclub in L.A., told Good Morning America that he was “very angry” when he found out about the charges.

“I was very angry, and we dealt with it. We got to the bottom of it, the employee was summarily dismissed for going against our internal policies in finance,” Steele said. He added that the committee was limiting what kind of events its finance department could host.

“When you have the White House and you have both houses of Congress, that’s no longer the standard that we’ve been trying to get them to adjust to. A lot of our donors, our major donors, are used to a particular type of an event. We’ve been scaling those back,” he said.

He made no signal that he would resign.

“I’ll continue to work hard and try to win more races to get a majority in the Congress this November … and get us ready to be competitive in 2012 with a nominee who will beat Barack Obama,” he said.

When asked if he has a slimmer margin of error because he’s black, Steele said yes.

“It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin,” he said.

He also blamed his “streetwise” sense of politics for why some Republicans dislike him.

“My view of politics is much more grassroots-oriented. It’s not old-boy-network-oriented. And so I tend to come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more streetwise, if you will. That’s rubbed some feathers the wrong way,” he said.

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