The civil war Donald Trump has set off within the Republican Party is going hard on Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, especially as some of the party’s big donors start to revolt against the party’s continuing support for Donald Trump:
For all Mr. Priebus’s public expressions of loyalty, he has been deeply shaken by revelations about Mr. Trump and the rifts within the party, seeing years of Republican organizational work potentially being undone, according to multiple people who described private conversations with Mr. Priebus on the condition of anonymity. He has said he feels adrift, fearing that Mr. Trump is headed for disaster, and told one longtime associate that he was having sleepless nights. Mr. Priebus did not respond to requests for comment.
Ha ha ha ha ha. That’s fantastic. Why is Priebus having such a tough time? As that paragraph makes clear, it’s not a values thing, not the horror of having to support such a morally bankrupt candidate. No, it’s stuff like this:
“At some point, you have to look in the mirror and recognize that you cannot possibly justify support for Trump to your children — especially your daughters,” said David Humphreys, a Missouri business executive who contributed more than $2.5 million to Republicans from the 2012 campaign cycle through this spring. [...]
“The R.N.C. long ago should have cut ties with Donald Trump,” said William E. Oberndorf, a California investor who has given more than $3 million to Republicans since 2012. “Reince should be fired and replaced with someone who has the competence and leadership skills to rebuild the R.N.C.”
When your big donors are turning against your candidate and in some cases taking it the next step and blaming you, that is a recipe for sleepless nights. But Reince Priebus isn’t important here as an individual. He’s important because his sleep quality is directly tied to the health of his party. And right now, the Republican Party is in bad shape.