Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus made a stunning admission about how the GOP approaches voter engagement during a recent panel discussion.
While sitting on a panel with MSNBC host Ari Melber — who was moderating the discussion — former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and GOP strategist Karl Rove, Priebus shared his views on why he thinks former President Donald Trump's four upcoming criminal trials won't affect independent voters in swing states.
"Donald Trump in 2016, he was the biggest middle finger that the American people could find. And they found it. And I actually think that people are more angry today than they were in 2016," he said.
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Rove countered that while Trump fell seven millions votes shy of President Joe Biden in the popular vote count in 2020, and that 8% of Republicans didn't vote to reelect him, his margin could worsen in 2024 if any of his trials don't yield a favorable verdict.
"If he is found guilty in something, even if it's the New York business case, it's gonna have an effect," Rove said.
Priebus acknowledged that Trump facing the possibility of a felony conviction was "as high-stakes poker as it gets," and that "if the [former] president gets acquitted on one of these items... his chances of winning are going to be even greater." This prompted Rove to warn Priebus that "the election cannot be won merely among Republicans."
"If you think that Trump being found guilty by the attorney general's investigation in New York is gonna sway the independent voters in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and North Carolina, good luck, because I don't think it is," Priebus said.
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"Most people don't care about any of these issues," Priebus continued. "I think you want them to. I think you wish they would. This is not the 1990s electorate. This is 2024, where division is profit, and unity is a loser."
Karl Rove wryly noted that Trump so far escaping prison was unexpected, saying "if I had done what he did, we would be having this [conversation] in the visitors' room at Fort Leavenworth," in reference to the Department of Defense's maximum security prison in Kansas.
Priebus was Trump's first White House chief of staff after he took office in 2017, though his tenure was short-lived. After six months on the job, Priebus was fired and replaced with Marine General John F. Kelly. Despite firing him, Trump called Priebus "a good man" and tweeted that he and Priebus "accomplished a lot together."
Watch Priebus' remarks below (at approximately the 8:10 mark of the video), or by clicking this link.
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