The chairs of the national Republican and Democratic parties on Friday accused each other of presiding over parties that are about to crumble in the face of challenges from outsider candidates that are posing serious problems for the establishment.
The back-and-forth between the party chairs started Friday morning when ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to respond to Donald Trump’s charge that Colorado’s delegate system is rigged, and that Republican Party is corrupt and in need of a serious overhaul.
“You say it’s a coming together, but it sounds like it’s going to be a breaking apart,” said Stephanopoulos. “The Democrats are making hay of this. You had … Debbie Wasserman Schultz, out last night saying, ‘Look at the Republicans, they’re in a civil war food fight. I think at the end of their convention the Republican Party will not be the Republican Party of today and they be will likely blowing themselves to smithereens.'”
“Aren’t you worried about a convention where no one’s happy?” Stephanopoulos added.
But Priebus responded by noting the DNC has some problems of its own.
“Well, first of all, I mean, Debbie doesn’t really have any room to talk,” he said of Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee. “I mean, they’re gouging each other’s eyes out and the director of the FBI is reviewing a possible indictment of Hillary Clinton,” he said, referring to the email scandal that has dogged Democratic front-runner.
“So, I mean, I don’t think she’s got anywhere to talk. But, no, it isn’t easy. I’m not trying to claim it isn’t and there is drama, but that’s what our party needs to do, we need to come together, we need to pick a nominee, we need to come together and put our eye on the prize, which is the White House,” he added.
Wasserman Schultz fired back later that afternoon.
“[Priebus is] putting the best spin on the situation that he can. The reality is that he has utter chaos going on on that side of the aisle. He has open warfare from his front-runner who is likely to be his nominee in Donald Trump,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“He goes on TV and is not talking about the issues. He’s talking about defending the rules. By the way, I agree with him: We do have rules. The candidates know what those are. But be that as it may, no party chair wants to be debating their own likely nominee over rules and process,” she added.
Wasserman Schultz has weathered criticism throughout the Democratic primary for allegedly swinging things in Clinton’s favor, especially on how the party scheduled its debates.
The DNC chairwoman added in her CNN interview of the GOP’s message, “The message that’s coming out is extremism, misogyny, bigotry, and their primary has basically sent a message to Americans: no rational people need apply.”
