Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made clear Thursday that the party's eventual presidential nominee is going to be one of the candidates currently vying for the position.
"They have all agreed to do that by virtue — in one case, by signing our data agreement," Priebus told
Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. It gives candidates access to the party's vast national voter database.
"They are 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 are running to be the nominee of our party.
"Our party exists," Priebus said. "And one of them is going to be our nominee."
He attributed front-runner Donald Trump's blunt reversal on the pledge — and vague walk-backs by Ted Cruz and John Kasich, all during CNN town halls in Milwaukee on Tuesday — to "a bit of posturing" for delegates as the Republican National Convention approaches in Cleveland in July.
"We are going into potentially — we don't know for sure — but potentially an open convention," Priebus told Van Susteren. "The candidates, I think, are going to posture a little bit as far as what they're willing to do and who they are willing to support and who they're not.
"People are counting noses. This selection of delegates is becoming very intense. We are not just talking about the allocation of delegates, who wins the states.
"After that happens, the actual selection of who is sitting in those chairs — and what candidates are now portraying out for the public to listen to is, I think, a bit of posturing," he said.
Priebus declined to discuss what he and Trump discussed during a meeting at the committee's headquarters in Washington. He said it was scheduled "days ago," though it followed several debacles this week in the front-runner's campaign.
"The team came over and we had good meeting and we talked a little bit about the process and convention," he told Van Susteren. "We did talk about unity and working together and making sure that when we go to Cleveland and come out of Cleveland that we're working in the same direction.
"Part of that is just talking more and making sure that we have got open channels of communication," Priebus added. "Pretty normal stuff, actually."
In an interview with Eric Bolling on Fox News'
"The O'Reilly Factor," Trump described the session as "a very good meeting.
"Actually a terrific meeting, I think. It's really a unity meeting.
"We are leading by a lot," Trump added. "We have far and away the most delegates. Millions and millions of votes more than anybody else than Ted has, than Kasich has.
"I think they wanted it to really discuss unity — and I like discussing unity, too."
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