RNC Chair: ‘I Can’t 100% Guarantee’ Nominee Will Be One of Remaining Candidates
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Let’s talk about this possibility of a contested convention. You used to call it an extreme hypothetical. Is that still the case?"
(LAUGHTER)
PRIEBUS: "Probably not still the case, no. I think it’s possible and we’re preparing for that possibility. And I think it’s my job is to be as open and transparent as I possibly can be. That’s why I’m trying to get out there on the convention a lot, out in the media and talk about what the rules are and what they’re not and take the mystery away from what an open convention looks like because it really is pretty simple stuff."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Well, let’s take some of the mystery away right now. You heard Mr. Trump on this idea that if he got really close to the 1,237 but didn’t get there, his supporters would be very angry, said he didn’t want them to riot but they’re going to be very angry and the Republican Party would lose if he were then denied the nomination. The simple yes or no question, is it fair if he goes in without 1,237 but with a plurality for the convention to deny him the nomination?"
PRIEBUS: "Well, plurality is a minority and a minority doesn’t choose for the majority. So you have to have a majority of the delegates in order to be the nominee. There’s nothing magical about the number. It’s 50 percent plus one. So no one’s disenfranchised. In fact, they’re enfranchised by receiving bound delegates based on the outcome of the elections. And so that’s all it is. And so you have to have a majority in order to be the nominee of our party. It’s no different than when I became chairman of the party. I won on the seventh ballot, George, hardly a landslide. But I was never behind. But no one called me the winner on the second, third, fourth or fifth ballot. I had to get to a majority.
"Most state chairmen out there across the country go through this same process on the floor of conventions. So that’s why to us it seems natural that you’d have to have a majority of your party. So yes, that’s the person I want to be the nominee. There’s nothing wrong with that."
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Can you guarantee that the nominee will be one of the three candidates in the race right now?"
PRIEBUS: "Well, I mean, I think it would be highly unlikely if it’s not. You know, that — I can tell you that. I think it would somewhat very unusual. But you know, I can’t 100 percent guarantee that. But I can’t imagine right now sitting here believing it would be anyone but the three remaining candidates."
