RNC Spox: Conservatives Shouldn’t Fear Priebus

Conservatives leery of the prospect of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff have nothing to fear, RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer said Monday.

Appearing on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Spicer said his boss will be focused exclusively on making Donald Trump a success as president.

“He works for Donald Trump to make sure Donald Trump’s agenda, solutions, and policies get enacted.”

“He works for Donald Trump to make sure Donald Trump’s agenda, solutions, and policies get enacted,” he said. “That’s it.”

Some view Priebus with suspicion, considering he commissioned the post-2012 “autopsy” that identified failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” immigration rhetoric as one of the reasons for his loss to President Obama. The report recommended accommodation on the immigration issue.

Trump took a giant wrecking ball to those assumptions and proved that an immigration hard-liner could hold his own with Hispanic voters.

Spicer said 99 percent of the autopsy report focused on the mechanics of a national campaign.

“That’s exactly what the chairman focused on, and that’s what he did,” he said.

Spicer said Priebus came up through grassroots and Tea Party circles in Wisconsin. As a Washington insider who has relationships with lawmakers in the majority party, Priebus will be of great value to Trump in navigating Congress, Spicer said.

“It’s taking the Trump agenda — and it’s very clear what that agenda is and what those policies are — and get these through Congress to make this country better,” he said.

Spicer said Priebus deserves a great deal of credit for building the staff and digital operation that took the lead in turning out voters for Trump last week. In addition, he added, Priebus raised a historic amount of money.

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“He did exactly what he said he was going to do,” he said. “And he took a lot of arrows along the way. And it wasn’t just a Trump presidency.”

Spicer pointed out that Republicans defeated the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives in Kentucky and took control of that chamber for the first time in more than 100 years. The party now has 33 governors with two races from last week that still have not been called. If the GOP picks up one of those, the 34 governors’ offices will be the most any party ever has had.

“There are so many successes up and down the ballot,” he said.

As for his own future, Spicer said he does not know whether he will continue in the job he has had for six years.

“If the president-elect of the United States, or in this case, Reince Priebus, asked me to do almost anything right now, it would be hard to say ‘no’ to someone who you really believe in and know will do a great job,” he said.