A top hand at the Republican National Committee suggested Wednesday that Donald Trump should keep his eye on Hillary Clinton rather than commenting on House Speaker Paul Ryan and embattled GOP senators’ races.
Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist, told “The Mike Gallagher Show” Wednesday morning that Trump and other Republicans need to stay focused on Clinton, arguing that “squabbling amongst ourselves is not helpful” with just over three months until Election Day. The comments came a day after Trump told the Washington Post that he is “just not quite there yet” about supporting Ryan ahead of his primary next Tuesday.
“One of the things conservatives and Republicans have to remember right now is that we have to keep in mind a bigger prize, which is that Hillary Clinton is the one person we can’t allow back into the White House, and that we’ve got to kind of — whatever differences we have, settle those privately and make sure that we are as unified as possible,” Spicer told guest host Sam Malone. “I would urge everybody to make sure that we are constantly thinking like that because — I get it. Some people don’t like comments here or there or this person said this or they reacted.”
“At the end of the day us talking to ourselves, us squabbling amongst ourselves is not helpful in the larger course of trying to win,” Spicer said. “The point that we all need to get, all of us as Republicans is that every time that we’re talking about ourselves, we’re not talking about how to help defeat Hillary Clinton and that something — and it’s tough. Sometimes there’s things that get said or tweeted about or whatever and people have personal reactions ad I think there is this tendency to say ‘well I’m going to go say this or do this in reaction.'”
Spicer went on to remind listeners of lessons taught from their mothers, adding that he wasn’t talking specifically about Trump.
“I just think that every once in a while this is sort of, you’ve got to go back to all the advice that your mom gave you which is think twice, two wrongs don’t make a right, and I think that it literally is one of those moments where you’ve got to remember that we have 96 days to go and if we are not unified and if we are focused like a laser, the electoral map advantage that they have every day of the week going into this election ensures that we have to play a perfect game. We have to be on our A-game going into these last three months — and I say that on all sides,” he added. “I’m not picking on one person. We all have to remember every day of the week when we wake up that we’ve got one mission, one cause and none of us are perfect.”
Trump said that not only would he not yet endorsing Ryan, but also Sen. John McCain over his inaction in supporting veterans. He additionally went out of his way to criticize Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of GOP senators up for re-election in a swing state, pointing to her not supporting Trump at all during his campaign.
