Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus insists the media has an “actual vendetta or at least an agenda against some of these candidates” in the Republican field.
Appearing on NBC’s “Today” Show on Monday, Priebus told Matt Lauer, “I would imagine some questions are appropriate, but I do believe that this is a totally crazy obsession over incredible detail from 30 and 40 years ago.” (RELATED: RNC Comms Director Slams Media’s ‘Huge Double Standard’ For Republicans Vs. Hillary Clinton [VIDEO])
“The fact is,” explained Priebus, “You know, we kind of wish the media would be just as obsessed or half obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s lies of many years and real relevant things like people who have died in Benghazi and e-mails and everything else.”
A defensive Lauer suggested, “Dr. Carson is saying that he is being targeted, not vetted. And if he says he is being vetted, he says he is being vetted more severely than anyone else, including Barack Obama, who faced years of birther questions, and Hillary Clinton, as you just mentioned, who’s faced decades of questions about her marriage, her personal life, her e-mails, 11 hours in a chair in front of Congress just a couple of weeks ago. Is he being more severely vetted than anyone else?”
Priebus shot back, insisting, “Yeah, but the difference is that the media is actually, you know – they do have an actual vendetta or at least an agenda against some of these candidates. In regard to Hillary Clinton, the media sort of, yeah, they cover it, but they cover it with a laugh and a wink and a nod, and you know, ‘Isn’t this horrible that she had to sit in a chair for 11 hours?’ I mean, that’s the tone of the coverage of Hillary Clinton. It’s a tone of, ‘This is silly, let’s move on.”
“Whereas with the Republicans it’s, ‘Hey, can you believe that, you know, 40 years ago this happened or that, hey, you know, this credit card over here,'” explained Priebus. “I mean, those are things that might be interesting for, you know, a question, but not an obsession.”
“I would say that Hillary Clinton’s past is something that people ought to be obsessed with,” said Priebus.
Regarding the CNBC debate, Priebus explained, “My belief is that there has to be some consequences for what we saw a couple weeks ago in Denver. You know, people did something that – that we didn’t obviously – wasn’t promised, it wasn’t expected, and there has to be consequences. And so, yeah, I did I have a good conversation with Andy Lack, and by the way, we’re going to be talking to the candidates about the future of that debate. But we’re looking forward to the debate this week, and I think it’s going to be a much better debate, and I think it’s going to be a good time to put that CNBC debate behind us.” (RELATED: RNC Drops NBC Partnership In Response To CNBC Debate)