Reince Priebus Warns Trump: ‘Those Kinds Of Comments Have Consequences’

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The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Reince Priebus warned Trump that there are “consequences” to his threats to run as an independent. A third-party run would fracture the conservative vote and almost certainly hand the presidency to the Democrats, but those didn’t seem to be the consequence Priebus was referring to.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Donald Trump recently backed away from his GOP loyalty pledge, which said the candidate would endorse whoever won the Republican nomination. The real estate mogul explained that he had been treated “unfairly” by the RNC.

On Sunday, Reince Priebus spoke about Trump’s actions on ABC‘s This Week, according to Raw Story.

“Those kinds of comments, I think, have consequences. And so when you make those kinds of comments and you want people to fall in line for you, it makes it more difficult… And certainly, you know, if you were running for president of the Kiwanis Club or the Boy Scouts and you said you don’t know if you like the Kiwanis or the Boy Scouts, I think that makes your challenge even greater to ultimately win those kinds of posts,” he said. “It’s no different for the Republican Party.”

The chairman implied that the comments could put Trump’s access to the party’s database at risk.

The other two Republican candidates, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, also walked back their pledges. Kasich was relatively vague about it, saying that he’d wait and see. Cruz, on the other hand, insisted that he would never endorse Trump because of slights against his wife Heidi.

The comments come after Chairman Reince Priebus had a closed door meeting with the real estate mogul at the party’s Washington headquarters. According to Time, the RNC has been working overtime to educate the public on the GOP’s complicated convention rules, explaining how Trump could still lose, despite winning the most delegates.

Although 95 percent of the delegates at the convention will be bound to vote for their pledged candidate in the first round of voting, in the second round, most delegates will be free to vote for whoever they choose. Then, if a third round occurs, all delegates will be free from previous obligations.

Rivals are now looking for defectors among the Trump’s delegates.

In South Carolina, for example, the delegates might turn against Trump because he went against the loyalty pledge (the state party has their own separate pledge). Then again, by the same logic, Cruz and Kasich would also not be tempting candidates to support.

Reince Priebus insists that he doesn’t have the power to change rules, that it’s up to the Rules Committee, but said that the regulations would likely stay the same from the 2012 race. That would mean the nominee would have to have a majority of delegates in at least eight states. So far, the only two candidates to pass that test are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump (Kasich has only won one contest).

Unless the rules do change, Republican political heavy-weights like Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney would be ineligible.

Reince Priebus also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Pressand insisted that the party is prepared to support the eventual nominee, whoever it is. He wouldn’t comment on if Trump would be the strongest candidate in the general election, but said all the candidates could win in the end.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]