Priebus: ‘Another Big Night’ for Romney

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told Newsmax TV that Mitt Romney did “a great job of laying out a vision of the future” in his final debate with President Barack Obama and of “showing the people that he’s ready to be commander-in-chief.”

“Once again, another big night, because he was intelligent, he was reasonable, he was presidential, he was ready – and he showed the American people that he’s ready to be commander-in-chief.” Priebus told Newsmax after the debate on Monday at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. “It’s a great night for us.”

Watch the exclusive interview here.



Being the challenger – and on the same stage as Obama – placed a greater pressure on the former Massachusetts governor, Priebus said.

“What you see in the last three debates, starting in Denver, is that everything President Obama tried to do – they’ve been spending millions and millions of dollars trying to portray Gov. Romney as someone who’s not unfit to lead, all the negative ads – it was all undone,” he said. “The American people saw again – tonight, 90 minutes – someone who was reasonable, intelligent and ready to be President of the United States.

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“That’s why these polls are turning in our favor because people are starting to realize that this Gov. Romney looks pretty smart, and he’s actually intelligent, and he’s reasonable, and he’s a caring guy – and that’s why the polls are turning in our favor.”

While both Obama and Romney agreed on many points, the president’s actions provide a greater contrast to his words, Priebus said.

“The president’s comments on Israel,” he began. “Let’s face it, the president has been throwing Israel under the bus every three weeks, starting with his 1967 borders’ speech that he claims he misspoke. He’s got six speech writers, and he was reading off a teleprompter. He didn’t misspeak.

“Obviously, the comments he made to the Prime Minister of France about Benjamin Netanyahu. Obviously reckless comments there. Reckless comments with regard to the president of Russia,” he added, referring to comments picked up on an open microphone in March in a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“The fact is, this president has time and time again shown daylight between us and Israel – and he was called out on the carpet on it,” Priebus said. “When it comes down to saying whether or not this country understands that Israel is the beacon of freedom in the Middle East, of course we agree on that – but it’s the actions that this president takes that are troubling.”