Michael Steele calls his critics racist

RNC chair Michael Steele defended his [intlink id="735758" type="post"]spending practices[/intlink] Monday morning, saying he has no plan to resign, and at one point suggesting that criticism of his tenure may be rooted in racism.

“I tend to come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more streetwise if you will,” Steele explained to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, in his first interview since [intlink id="713040" type="post"]the Daily Caller broke the news[/intlink] last week that the RNC paid almost $2,000 at a risqué, bondage themed night club. “That’s rubbed some feathers the wrong way. At the end of the day, I’m judged by if I win elections and raise the money. That’s a standard I’m very comfortable with and meeting in November.”

Asked if “as an African-American” he has “a slimmer margin for error than another chairman would,” Steele replied: “The honest answer is yes.” Steele went on to explain that, like Barack Obama, he has had to contend with racism as someone who is “not ole boy network.”

Steele’s comments on race occured in the second part of the interview at the 1:01 minute mark.

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After Stephanopoulos showed Steele a recent poll of Republican insiders that states 71 percent find him to be a liability, Steele said “they’ve been saying that since the day I got the job.” The chairman said he will not resign in the wake of the scandal and said the RNC is “taking steps” to fix the internal problems that allow financial irregularities to occur.

“The reality of it is, when I first heard about the behavior going on, I was very angry and we dealt with it,” Steele explained. “We got to the bottom of it. The employee was summarily dismissed for going against our internal policies and finance. We have been putting great controls in place for the last few months, as a matter of fact, on some of our finances.”

Despite FEC filings showing the RNC spent money on high-end hotels and airfare, Steele said he’s not the one the committee is spending the money on. “Those numbers that they talked about, you know, I’m not staying in fancy hotels — and Four Seasons — and flying around in corporate jets.”