Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on Monday took a thinly veiled swipe at his predecessor, Michael Steele, for purportedly leaving the organization in financial shambles. Now Steele is retorting by simply directing Priebus to their contrasting track records.
“I won, and he didn’t,” Steele, now an MSNBC contributor, said during a Monday afternoon appearance on the network.
Steele, who served as chairman of the RNC from 2009 until 2011, highlighted his successful efforts in getting Republican governors such as Chris Christie in New Jersey and Bob McDonnell in Virginia elected, saying the organization “just went out and did the heavy work of rebuilding the party” following the GOP’s electoral drubbings in 2006 and 2008.
“So Reince is just being silly and I understand that,” Steele said.
At a press conference to unveil the party’s autopsy of the 2012 campaign, Priebus said that when he took over for Steele, both of the RNC’s credit cards were suspended. Priebus declined to call Steele out by name, but said “the numbers speak for themselves.”
But Steele said that Priebus, a Wisconsin native, had no such qualms about the RNC running a debt when Badger State Republicans were on the receiving end of the checks.
