Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus just gave presidential contender Donald Trump a huge vote of confidence in a Washington Post retrospective published Sunday about the Republican Party's hectic 2015:
I'm not one of these people that think that Donald Trump can't win a general election. I actually think there is a huge crossover appeal there to people that are disengaged politically that he speaks to.... Donald Trump taps into the culture. Some people in politics don't get it, don't understand it, are frustrated by it. It doesn't matter. He does. [The Washington Post]
Priebus' remark comes after December rumors that the party establishment would consider a brokered convention for 2016, as outsiders like Donald Trump and Ben Carson remained popular in the polls months after they were expected to fade. In that light, the notion that Trump would be an appealing general election candidate sounds a little off.
As Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) put it to the Post: "If I said one of the things [Trump] had said about Hispanics, Muslims, or women, I'd have to go into a witness protection program."
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