As the first GOP debate approaches on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is calling for more civility from the candidates.
"The name-calling has to stop … It doesn’t get us close to beating Hillary Clinton," Priebus said Sunday on
"The Cats Roundtable" on AM 970 in New York.
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Priebus made
the same assertion on Fox News Channel's
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" on Friday.
Priebus told host John Catsimatidis that the party's role is to remain neutral among the 17 candidates and not get involved in their fights.
"We just want our folks to concentrate on what they should do to make our country better," he said.
"It's also not our role to get too far in the weeds calling balls and strikes and commenting on every comment," Priebus said.
The RNC has scolded front-runner Donald Trump for saying Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain was not a war hero after McCain called some of Trump's supporters "crazies."
In return, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fiend of McCain's and a presidential candidate himself, called Trump a "jackass."
Trump also has
traded barbs with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Perry said Trump's candidacy is "is a cancer that must be diagnosed, excised, and discarded," while Trump said Perry started wearing glasses so he would look smart.
Priebus would like the candidates to focus on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"I think she’s in trouble," Priebus told Catsimatidis.
"If you’re Joe Biden or you’re John Kerry or you’re Al Gore, and you’re looking at Hillary Clinton’s unfavorables at 60 percent … and you see Bernie Sanders at … 35 percent … I think those guys are looking at this and saying, 'Wait a second. Why not me?'" Priebus said.
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