Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus may not be Mitt Romney’s biggest booster should he decide to run for president again in 2016.
At a Republican National Committee fundraiser in New York City this month, according to the New York Times, Priebus fielded questions from a donor who was worried about another Republican failure in the upcoming presidential race.
The donor lamented that Romney’s tight run against other Republicans in the primaries hindered his ability to appeal to swing voters in the general election. Priebus, according to the newspaper’s account, told the donor that the 2012 primary season was not just to blame — and recalled Romney’s infamous “47 percent” comments, as well as the luxuries Romney’s family had, such as a car elevator in the family’s California beach home.
An attendee who was not committed to any 2016 candidate said Priebus was trying “to remind donors deluded by a Romney repeat run just how terrible a campaign Romney ’12 was.”
Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the RNC, said Priebus was trying to make a point that despite an overhaul of the primary process by the Republican Party, there were other matters about a candidate that could not be changed.
“You can’t blame the system,” Spicer added, “when things are said on our side that were unforced errors.”
Romney has continually denied he will run for president again in 2016.
