What, me worry?
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday that he was never concerned Donald Trump would mount an independent bid for the White House.
Trump made news at the GOP debate when he said that he would run only as a Republican.
“I never worried about” Trump pursuing an independent campaign, Priebus told CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota on “New Day” Wednesday. “I never lost any sleep over it.”
Priebus said he was confident because in September Trump had signed a pledge not to run as an independent and to support the eventual GOP nominee.
Last week, Trump had renewed speculation he could jump the GOP ship, telling CNN’s Don Lemon that “if the playing field is not level, then certainly all options are open.”
But on Tuesday night, during the final Republican debate of 2015, sponsored by CNN, the front-runner said he was “totally committed to the Republican Party.” He doubled down during the postgame, telling Cuomo, “I’m not going to be doing a third party — no matter what.”
Priebus on Wednesday dismissed the speculation surrounding Trump’s future plans.
The Republican committee boss said he and the RNC were never “sitting around biting our finger nails worried that that’s going to happen.”
As for another candidate’s mangling of his name during an exchange on the debate stage at the Venetian, Priebus was similarly at ease.
“I spoke to Reince Pubis,” Ben Carson seemed to say at one point Wednesday evening, a soundbite that went viral within seconds.
Priebus took the gaffe in stride, though, telling CNN he’s gotten used to that kind of thing.
“It’s what happens when a Greek and a German get married,” he said of his parents. “It’s a cultural disaster.”