Look out, America, and look out, Republican party. If the GOP doesn’t win this year, both the nation and the party face big problems, Republican Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday.
“If we don’t win in 2016, we could be finished as a country distinguished by freedom and prosperity,” he told the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting.
“That might sound dramatic,” Priebus conceded, “but it’s true.”
And he had another warning to the party faithful: “If we don’t win, what happens to our party?” Priebus asked. “Could we function as a national party in the same way?”
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It’d be tough, he said. “It’s difficult to keep up with the opposition when you don’t have the presidency,” the chairman said. “I can promise you that. What’s a party chairman going to say in 2017 to our donors and our grassroots if we’re looking at 12 or 16 years out of the White House?”
Then he launched into bitter criticism of national Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. “You could build the Hoover Dam with all the stonewalling she’s doing,” Priebus said.
David Lightman: 202-383-6101, @lightmandavid