Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that much of the talk among candidates not supporting the party's nominee is really just posturing, and he expects them to hold to their pledge.
The pledge signed by all candidates was actually an agreement for them to receive voter data from the RNC, Priebus told
"Fox News Sunday." But when asked by host Chris Wallace whether the RNC would consider suing anyone who didn't hold to the pledge to support the nominee, Priebus hedged.
"We'll see what happens," Priebus said. "But I personally think that these folks are posturing, and I think that they want to be loyal to the party.
No one has yet broken the pledge, Priebus argued, though front-runner Donald Trump told Wallace in an interview aired earlier that he wouldn't rule out a third-party bid if he feels the RNC has treated him fairly — and he indicated he feels it hasn't.
And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has dodged questions on whether he will support Trump after Trump retweeted an unflattering picture of Cruz's wife, Heidi.
Priebus was also asked about RNC Rule 40B that states a candidate cannot be placed for nomination without receiving the majority of votes in at least eight states.
The rule was written by Mitt Romney delegates four years ago, Priebus noted, and would likely stay in place since the rules this year will be written largely by Trump and Cruz delegates and they would not likely have any incentive to change them.
But Priebus seemed to say the opposite on
"Meet the Press" where he told moderator Chuck Todd, "it's probably unlikely that you see major changes. … And why would people want the Romney delegates rules to apply to Cruz and Trump and Kasich? It doesn't make any sense."
But he said it is probably true that the rule goes out the window if no one wins the nomination on the first vote.
For someone other than the three remaining candidates – Trump, Cruz or Ohio Gov. John Kasich – it is an "extreme hypothetical," Priebus said, but not impossible.
"And at that point, if you get into a multiballot convention where you have five or six or seven rounds, it's possible that a person can be nominated that is not one of the three," he said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.