Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Communications Director Sean Spicer Friday fired back at Donald Trump and his complaints over the election processes used in Colorado, saying that he never complained about the issue until after Ted Cruz won Colorado's delegates.
"In some states, where it is winner-take-all, he or another candidate has gotten all the delegates," Spicer said of Trump in an MSNBC interview. "When you don't get the outcome you want, any circumstance, sporting event, political contest, you immediately cry foul. But when the process has benefited them they don't seem to complain too much."
In addition, GOP presidential candidates have known the election rules and processes for the individual states since last October, giving them all plenty of time to understand the guidelines.
"They were all submitted to the RNC on Oct. 1 of last year and made available to the campaigns, and to the media and to the public," Spicer said. "So everybody knew what the rules were. I understand that people may not like the process or find them archaic, but nobody didn't know what it was."
"There are a lot of things I don't like the process of," he continued. "I don't like the speed limit on my street but I have to follow it or I'll get a ticket."
Earlier on Friday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, appearing on NBC's "Today" program, said Trump's complaints are unfounded, telling the program that the system is the same one "that elected Abraham Lincoln" and is nearly the same that is used by the Democrats,
reports Politico.
And such complaining, Priebus said, is a distraction from the need to unify the party, which he knows is hard because there is still a contest going on for the nomination.
"But you know, I think it gets distracting and really isn't something that most people give a darn about," Priebus said.
Further, Priebus said that candidates, including Trump, competed through surrogates in Colorado a month ago, when votes were taken on the precinct, county, and then congressional district level, and there was "no complaining, by the way, the whole way, for a month."
Spicer, meanwhile, said the election procession was "open and transparent for all to see and follow. If a campaign doesn't stay up on that, that's up to them, not on us. The RNC has tried to go though an overwhelming educational process and get the word out."
The process has gone largely unnoticed for about 40 years, he continued, and "it's the same process we've followed for a century."
Meanwhile, it's up to campaigns to begin the process to get people to run for delegate slots in certain states, and when a candidate doesn't do that, then they don't win in the delegate count, said Spicer.
Spicer further said that the Republican process, which respects states' rights, is more democratic than the one the Democratic Party uses, and the procedures are revisited every four years to see if changes are needed.
"The last time, in 2012, the [Mitt] Romney campaign, [Ron] Paul, understood the rules and played them hard to the limit," Spicer said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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