Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus predicted his party will have some advantage running against a “known product” like Hillary Clinton should she decide to aim for the White House.
Priebus told NBC’s Meet the Press that it’s up to Karl Rove whether or not he chooses to apologize for suggesting Clinton may have suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“Look, I think that health and age is fair game. It was fair game for Ronald Reagan. It’s fair game for John McCain. When people came at John McCain and said maybe he’s psychologically not fit because he was a prisoner of war,” he said. “…I don’t think there’s a graceful way to bring up age, health and fitness for a candidate that wants to be president of the United States. I think the more important issue for me as leader of this party is what’s the record of Hillary Clinton? What was her record as a secretary of State, Benghazi, Boko Haram, you know Syria, Russia. Those are going to be the issues that I believe will cause her to rethink whether she actually want to run for president.”
On the issue of her health, though, “We’re going to be at this point at some time if Hillary Clinton runs for president.”
“I’m not a doctor. What I do know is that the issue is going to come up as it does for any person running for president. What I think is going to make her rethink whether she should actually run for president — by the way, I don’t — I don’t actually think she will but if she had another month like she just had but the issues that I’ve talked about are going to be the issues that make her unacceptable.”
For one, Priebus said, she is “absolutely” trying to “sweep Benghazi under the rug.”
“When Senator Johnson tried to ask her questions about Benghazi and her response is what difference does it make, I assure you that that will be an issue if she does decides to run,” he said.
He stressed that the GOP doesn’t “fear” a Clinton candidacy.
“I think Hillary is a known product. Actually I think it’s sometimes worse running against a blank slate. Hillary has decades of history for us to explore,” Priebus added. “You know, her role in Hillary care when she was first lady. Her Senate experience where there’s nothing significant to point to. And her Secretary of State experience which is not just not significant, but there’s all kinds of problems for her.”
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