GOP Chair Reince Priebus, who famously commissioned a post-2012 study to try and analyze the reasons for his party’s Presidential Election debacle, clearly has learned absolutely nothing since then.
Last evening, Priebus was interviewed by Robert Segal on NPR’s All Things Considered news program and the following dialogue ensued:
ROBERT SEGAL NPR: Now there is a poll that shows 55% of Latinos have a very negativeopinon of the front runner – Donald Trump and there is another 12% that have just a negative opinion. Is your effort to connect with Latinos dead if Donald Trump is the nominee?
PRIEBUS: I don’t think our effort is dead at all. If you look at some of the issues of what we are facing in the Hispanic community, it is the fact that we haven’t been in the Hispanic community, which is what we we’ve been doing for the past three years (sic)
What we’re doing is putting an infrastructure in place so that we can actually make the case in the Hispanic communities when we get a nominee.
SEGAL: What do you say to the observation that the case has been made. Trump is the one candidate about whom groups have strong opionions…they are not unsure..and everybody’s heard of him. There’s not a lot to learn about him.
PRIEBUS: Listen….I don’t know who is going to be the nominee. If that’s the case I am sure these candidates will talk to those communities. Will answer questions, will have plenty of time to campaign and obviously tell them why they are a better choice than Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, and obviously it will be up to them to make sure that ship is put on the right course.
Pay careful attention here as Priebus waltzes back and forth about the state of his party’s outreach effort to Hispanics.
In his initial response to Segal’s question about Trump’s unpopularity with Hispanics he seems to admit that the GOP ...{hasn’t) been in the Hispanic community...for the past three years.
This from the chair whose study three YEARS ago clearly pinpointed the critical need for the GOP to reach out to Hispanics if it had any hope of regaining the White House. In other words, they were warned but have done nothing about it since then.
Then Priebus pivots and says, “What we’re doing is putting an infrastructure in place so that we can actually make the case in the Hispanic communities when we get a nominee. Iemphasis mine)
So now they ARE going to do something, but they are waiting until they have a nominee.
Segal immediately points out that the party’s own current front runner is Donald Trump and Trump, more than any other GOP hopeful, is roundly despised by the majority of Hispanics for his views on immigration and deportation and building walls.
To which Priebus replies
…….”I am sure these candidates will talk to those communities. Will answer questions, will have plenty of time to campaign and obviously tell them why they are a better choice than Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.”
Reince...we’re not talking about other candidates...we’re talking about Trump and as Segal notes, Trump’s position is already crystal clear with Hispanics. Do you think OTHER losing candidates are going to waltz into Hispanic forums and try and convince them that Trump really is their buddy and better than Clinton or Sanders?
Today’s GOP has NO control over anything any more and I am firmly convinced that Trump is simply waiting for the best time for him to bolt the party, using some lame excuse for doing so on grounds that the party didn’t treat him fairly and thus breaking his pledge to support whomever is the GOP nominee.
Right now the party has been useful to him in providing debate forums that, along with social media, and staged carnival events for his acolytes, have done him well. But he doesn’t NEED the party, and in fact, clearly despises it. He has shown as much with a recent tweet that used his name and a custom designed heraldic lion logo above a line of text bracketing traditional logos for the GOP and Democratic parties and reading….”Because this isn’t working any more.”
Trump views his competitors as wimps and part of the problem….except for Ted Cruz. Cruz is clearly his biggest competitor right now...he has money and a reported jauggernaut of an organization with the latest technology to seek out and convince potential supporters.
And Cruz is closest to Trump in terms of message...the traditional GOP has continually failed us. I am the purist, the true believer. Follow me.
Hence Trump’s recent onslaught of attacks...threatened suits against Cruz ads claiming Trump is not a true conservative, and threats to challenge his citizenship and right to run for President.
But clearly, the GOP is totally ineffective and even more clearly delusional in its belief that it has any ability to control the outcome of its own process and Reince Priebus is Delusioner in Chief