Donald Trump has threatened to oust Reince Priebus if he wins the 1,237 delegates to clinch the GOP presidential nomination — but booting the Republican National Committee chair isn't as simple as it sounds, veteran Republican consultant Roger Stone said on
Newsmax TV.
"[It's] easier said than done," Stone, a longtime Trump supporter, said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"The term of the chairman of the Republican National Committee does not run consecutive with the nomination of a candidate for president."
Stone said Trump could publicly ask for Priebus to resign, but that's not what usually happens when candidates disagree with party heads.
"What traditionally happens is the nominee keeps the chairman on in a figurehead position with the title but parks his own political operatives at the national committee," Stone said.
"Ronald Reagan didn't particularly like Bill Brock. Brock had opposed Reagan's candidacy and in the name of party unity the Reagan people kept Brock in place as the titular head of the party. But they sent Drew Lewis from Pennsylvania — someone Reagan trusted — over to the RNC."
Trump has slammed Priebus for what he calls the GOP's "rigging'' of the primary process after Ted Cruz was awarded delegate victories in both Wyoming and Colorado without a popular vote.
"The problem here is that voters vote overwhelmingly for Trump and then these Republican state machineries produce delegates who are not for Trump, who will betray him on procedural matters and who will break from him on a second ballot [at the GOP convention]," Stone said.
Stone says the Trump-Priebus war may be much ado about nothing. "The voters, even though they are outraged by the system, I don't think they really know nor care who Reince Priebus is," he said.
So the establishment has … traditionally stacked the rules against outsider candidacies ... This is either you respect the democratic process or you don't. Either our votes matter or they do not."
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