Former RNC chairman says the candidates all need to 'tone down' their rhetoric

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is doling out free advice to GOP presidential candidates: Chill with the rhetoric.

"I've talked to everyone about toning it down," Steele told the Los Angeles Times before the start of the main CNN Republican Debate Wednesday night. "The sooner we change the tone of the rhetoric, the sooner we change the emphasis from exclusion to assimilation and inclusion, the better off the party will be."

Not all of the candidates listened, including Donald Trump, who discussed deporting undocumented immigrants and, after prodding by Jeb Bush, said he would not apologize to Bush's Mexican-born wife, Columba, for suggesting that she was the reason why her husband was weak on immigration. Steele said when election day comes around, voters will remember every position the candidates had during their campaigns. "That is where everything you say matters 10 times more than it did in a primary," Steele said. "Oftentimes, what happens is what you said in the primary comes back and bites you in the butt."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.