The head of the Republican National Committee said unifying the party under the banner of de facto presidential nominee Donald Trump ahead of the general election will be “hard.”
“When you have a race where you’ve got 17 candidates and as of late, two very serious candidates with serious campaigns, it’s not easy. It’s hard. I would be lying to you all if I said: ‘Okay, this is going to be easy. We’re just going to be pivot,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said on “CBS This Morning.”
Priebus made the rounds on the major television networks after Trump’s runaway victory in Indiana on Tuesday night prompted Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to drop out of the race. At 9:05 p.m. Tuesday, the RNC chief tweeted that Trump “will be [the] presumptive GOP nominee” and called for Republicans to unite and “focus on defeating” Hillary Clinton.
Priebus said Republicans will work to attract female and minority voters, two groups with low levels of support for Trump, while seeming to acknowledge it will be a struggle.
“You can’t win unless you are the party of the open door,” Priebus said Wednesday, confronted with data about Trump’s low approval ratings among key voters.
“Look, I get it, and there is work to do,” he said. “It’s not going to be overnight and instantaneous. . . . I think Donald Trump is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work.”
Trump, interviewed on Fox News, said he was “surprised” by Cruz’s exit.
“Now we’re going to unify the party,” he told “Fox and Friends.” “We’re going to get people together. I don’t necessarily want everybody, if you want to know the truth. I think I’m a little bit of a different candidate than most.”
Trump’s only remaining rival is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who indicated he will continue his long-shot campaign despite trailing the business mogul by nearly 900 delegates.
