Now, because they depend on the american umbrella, will reconsider that. I know china doesnt well leave this discussion at this point to go live to a conversation with the chair of the Republican National committee, Reince Priebus, on the Republican Party underdonald trump. The partys presumptive president ial nominee. This is live coverage. We have rnc chairman Reince Priebus with us this morning. Looking forward to a great conversation with him, talking about tuesday, looking ahead. Talking about the convention and about november. Before we kick off i would like to thank bank of america for continuing to support these great conversations at. Bank of america is here. We really appreciate our partnership with bank of america that has taken us all over the country to talk about the most important issues in politics and policies. So thank you to bank of america for being a great partner for many years now. We appreciate your support. Welcome all of you out in live stream land. Well be taking your questions too. I have the twitter machine up here. So just hashtag your questions, playbook breakfast, and they will pop right up for me. Without further adieu, chairman priebus. [applause] good morning, mr. Chairman. This is off the record, right . Really appreciate it [laughter] we wont tell a soul. Wait a minute. So mr. Chairman, we started this is first of pray book breakfast which we have never done before. In your profile of cnn which was done before tuesday they asked you how you were feeling about how the primaries were going and you said, well, im not exactly pouring baylys in cereal. Thanks to my call leagues, daniel lipman, a present for you where is the lucky charms and the bowl . There you go. Thank you, michael. [applause] daniel points out, two glasses. One for you and one for your nominee. Right. Who is the one person in washington who has a harder job than you . Maybe my chief of staff. Your job now is to elect donald trump president of the united states. That makes you feel how . Well, look, weve said all along that whoever our nominee is were obviously here to support the nominee. I think that were as prepared as we have ever been. Ill tell you why. If we had the rnc of today four years ago, i think mitt romney would be president. What we talking data . Data, field staff. Weve gone from a committee that was in disarray, to a committee that has raised over 75 million more dollars than dnc just this cycle. Hundreds and thousands of people out in the field. 5000 people going through six weeks of training. And 100 million makeover in our data operation. So were prepared to keep the senate, keep the house, and win the white house. If you look at Hillary Clinton, look, i would rather take a few elbows being thrown than the director of the fbi interviewing your top aides and potentially the democrat nominee. Now, take us behind the scenes. Tuesday night you were home in milwaukee. Yes. Which you rarely do. Tell us what happened when you decided and you tweeted donald trump was the presumptive nominee . I said he would be. Obviously kasich was still in the race. Presumptive nominee you still have to be at 1237 to be the presumptive nominee. No one else is running i think it is safe to say at some point here he is going to be presumptive nominee but let me tell you where we were. So we plan ad fundraiser in milwaukee and obviously those are kind of family members to me. They have been helping me ever since ive been chairman of the wisconsin party. And we had gone into the fister, which you have been to. I had thought, heard some rumors about the potential of ted cruz dropping out in the afternoon. I didnt go out of my way to confirm any of it or make any phone calls you know, sometimes, you know, there are times you actually dont want to be in the information loop on things like that because once youre in the loop, if something leaks, youre one of the people in the loop, well find out soon enough but i did call my chief of staff, katy walsh, you know, what if ted cruz actually drops out tonight, what do you think of that . We talked a little bit. I dont think its going to happen. So went to the fundraiser and sure enough you know, when the cell phone starts buzzing, a few buzzes is one thing. When you get like 15 in a row, you dont want to look down at your phone talking to people and you pick it up, you realize, i okay, i guess the rumor was true. I went back to the house in kenosha which i hadnt been to in very long time which was nice. And, that was it. And made some phone calls. Obviously talked to donald trump a couple times. I think he did a nice job, very gracious in his speech that night. I think we need, obviously more of that. I think being president ial, 30,000 feet, gracious. Im hoping well see more of that. Does crooked hillary count as president ial . Look. I know he has done an effective job of labeling. Look i think she has a history of being crooked. She has a lot to answer for. She has families of dead heroes in benghazi to answer for. A tenure as secretary of state to answer for. I think she has a lot of material for to us cling on to and use. What is he like behind the scenes . Far more gracious and personable than i think you see at rallies. I have never had a problem behind the scenes. I never had a situation where something was said by him that wasnt followed through. So all of my interaction has been extremely positive, which made the, you know, system rigged stuff, you know so out of place for me, compared to what was being said personally behind the scenes. Does that bother you, that there is one donald trump behind the scenes and one saying Something Different on camera . I think he said himself there will be a time to shift to general election mode and i think that is the way he sees it. I think that is the way he feels about it. That now the general election is starting and what you saw on tuesday night i think is going to be more of what you see in the future. And really the person you saw on tuesday night was the person that i got used to dealing with on the telephone and in person. So that general election approach is the type of approach dealing with for six years. You about is there recidivism issue the next morning he is on Television Im sure it will take some time to, i mean to get into general election mode and out of primary mode. Is there any way that in cleveland the rules could be used to nominate someone other than donald trump . Well, see got some rules experts out in the crowd. Look, my personal views, it is highly, highly doubtful. As i said before, the rules committee of 2016 writes the rules for the convention. I dont write the rules. In fact the rncs role at the convention is fairly limited and i know that weve been through this now for months together walking through our rules but the rnc is basically a care taker administrator convention. I hear you say it is unlikely but not impossible . Nothing is impossible, like i said, i said this many times, highly, and i add another one, highly unlikely. Senator ben sasse of nebraska, one of your rising stars had a Facebook Post and tweet storm two nights ago, tweets calling for a draft of an adult conservative challenger to trump. He preloaded with hashtags, we can do better, give us more choices. Is there any danger of a third party run from the right . I dont believe so. I believe the amount of time, energy, money, and also it is a guarranty to elect Hillary Clinton. No doubt. And i think when people start to take a breath and let some of this stuff calm down, i think that people are going to understand that the Supreme Court is too important to let differences of opinions and choices in our primary to get in the way. Republicans i talk to there is no way to guarranty you that donald trump will nominate conservatives to the court. Thats why i think a smart thing for donald trump to do would be to release five to 10 names of people that he would, he would pool from to say, here is 10 folks that i think would make great Supreme Court justices and work with people to come up with that list. I things like that would be helpful in kind of recalibrating some peoples minds as far as, okay, what is this about . Why do we need to support the republican nominee. Which think were going to get there. Keep in mind, can i justi dont think, maybe you all, some of you did but i dont think too many people thought that tuesday and wednesday would be the end of ted cruz and john kasich. And so, for some people, and i would say in paul ryans case, he thought he had 30 more days to kind of, you know there was this meeting planned next week by the way. Something that the media is not really talking about, there was a plan to start having meetings on capitol hill and paul ryan and leadership were planning that meeting with donald trump. So, in their minds theyre thinking weve got another month to talk about this to get comfortable. All of sudden you have got cameras in your face saying what do you think, what do you think . I think paul is being honest how he feels. I think he will get there. By the way, he wants to get there, he just want some time to just work through it. Now politico reporting this morning that meeting on capitol hill next week is expected to go ahead. Do you expect speaker ryan to be there . I mean, i do. I talked to him multiple times yesterday and he wants it to go forward. Im being honest. He says he is not there yet but he wants to get there. So yes, he will meet. Now after speaker ryan made his comment that he was not ready to jake tapper on cnns the lead, how quickly did donald trump call you . Well i had talked to him already once that day but i had talked to donald trump and paul ryan multiple times yesterday afternoon. But donald trump called you within minutes . Ah, youre pretty good. [laughter] i cant lie. No, i wouldnt lie anyway. Okay. Thats right. What was his mood . You know, it wasnt like furious or anything. It was like, what do i need to do . I mean im and so, i said listen, let me just, he my view is just relax and be gracious and ill talk to paul and well try to work on this. And you are the person i kind of like dont get overly hot either quickly. So i mean, i know paul really well. I know he is being honest and i know how he feels and so im comfortable with the idea that it is going to take some time in some cases for people to work through differences. We talked about it and multiple times and theyre very comfortable with sitting down with donald trump and it may be at my office. It may be somewhere else but were going to have that meeting to start the process of unifying. Joe scarborough said on morning joe yesterday, for him to society on donald trump, trump would have to change positions or some of his emphasis, restricting the entry of muslims or forced deportation do you sense with speaker ryan, that you spoke to it will take some change of position . No, first of all, im in agreement on deportation, the ban coming in. I mean i put a statement out on that already that it is not something that i believe in or our party believes in. I believe our party is the party of open door and the party is opportunity and freedom and equality and will always remain such. So wait, are you going to be able to convince donald trump for that. I dont know. We havent it has been like three days. So not quite there yet. But you do hope to get the speaker on board and well get into some of those details later. Do you hope to persuade to donald trump that the Republican Party should be party of the open door . I think he believes that. And i will make sure that some of these issues are discussed and talked about and im confident given my experience so far with him that he will have an open mind to some of these issues. Mitt romney said last night when he announced he wouldnt support donald trump, he said i see way too much demagoguery and populism on both sides of the aisle. Do you agree . Well, i mean i guess, you know, everyone has their opinion. One thing that i have learned very quickly, every person, they have just asking about yours . Do you think there is way too much demagoguery and populism . I think there is plenty of it and i certainly believe theres, listen, i think there is plenty of it. Whether there is too much of it i think is result of what people have been served up in this country and people feel cheated. People feel like they are not bringing enough money home. They feel like government hasnt been doing its job or is too big in many cases. So i think that you know, you sometimes get the result that you build. And i think that is sort of what happened across the country. So during the primaries, what is the biggest thing that you learned about Republican Base primary voters . Something that people dont report on a lot there is incredible enthusiasm out there in our party. I mean we have record turnout, 70 higher among republicans. 30 lower among democrats. We have a, an advantage over Voter Registration in battleground states we havent seen in 25 years. In the First Quarter of this year at rnc we raised more money than ever in any First Quarter in the history of the rnc. So we were raising more money in the First Quarter that we raised in 2012. So i mean, the press, and it is okay, you do what you have to do, it is always focus on the drama, which i get, that is what people are interested in the drama. That is why they call it drama. Theyre not interested in the mechanics. Mechanically because of all the enthusiasm in our party and seventeen serious candidates you have a result that think really built us into a machine that will complete very well in november. What is the biggest thing you learned about the press during the primaryies . I think there is so much of it and there is so many people and a lot of talented people, online, traditional, that almost nothing breaks through. So if you have a really good story that youre really proud of and you think that youve done a great job, it very difficult for yall to break through because there is just so much. I also believe that in too many cases it is all about click bait. It is all about the headline. In many cases im not worried about the copy. Im worried about the headline. A lot of types the headline doesnt match reality. Take this group of articles about the rnc meeting in april. All of you that wrote articles about how there is going to be a rules fight that erupts, not you all, but people watching this, owe everyone an apology. That was ridiculous. It was 542. So it is that kind of stuff bog downorg sayings with click bait and people to answer for things that are inaccurate. Of course it was all inaccurate. There was no rules fight. It was smooth sailing. I think, at least some. Stories said youre prepared for rules fight which was the case. We would like to welcome our cspan viewers. Thank cspan for carrying us live. Welcome the live stream viewers, shoot us a question, playbookbreakfast. Do you agree with donald trump beating hillary would be easy . I dont know that he said that. While youre thinking, he said in indiana, 48 hours ago, he said folks i havent even started yet. Now i will focus on hillary. It is going to be easy, it is going to be so great. [laughter]. Well, you know, look, i dont think anyone would have predicted that trump in this fashion would have, you know, taken out 16 other candidates. He certainly defied the odds. I would say that, first of all, i personally dont think it is going to be easy, i think raising money, building ground game, having data, targeting voters, the truth is our party is a great Midterm Party but weve had a real hard time winning president ial elections and its nothing new. Not just like this happened. In 04, it was 1 30 in the morning and still, fairly popular president had a, really tough time putting away i think horrible candidate as far as saleable in john kerry. We know what happened in 2000. 96 wasnt good. 92, clinton lost six primaries initially or Something Like that. Obviously there was ross perot, but bush 41 was very popular president. Last time we won with relative ease was 1988. I think it is a difficult task but i think were up to it. I think we have a group, we have a big upside too. There are perils but i know there is an upside. How does having a soon to be presumptive nominee affect the building, the formal rnc . Well i think, you look at the fact, i think clarity has been helpful. You know, there is no one else running and so therefore there is not this daily unknown, which i think has been helpful. I think it has been helpful on the money side too. Will trump bring some of his own people into the rnc . There is no mechanism for it other than me agreeing to it. That is the only mechanism for such a thing. I dont know what this myth is all about the nominee comes in someone has to issue a key card, okay . Someone has to give out the key. Would you do that if sure, but there is not going to be, there is not going to be any layering that would be any different than what happened when i was chairman under the mitt romney nomination time frame. So, in the case of mitt romney, remember brian jones was in our building and ward baker were in the building but they werent saying what to do or not to do or sitting in on our meetings. There was a lot of trust that we knew what we were doing. I would say that so far we see that same approach with some of the folks on the trump campaign, that they have no intention of taking over anything. So you will remain in charge . 100 . There was never, there were never any doubt. The night of indiana primary abc political director rick klein posted analysis headline, donald trump completes takeover of weary Republican Party. Do you agree this is Donald Trumps party . It, no it is the partys party. The party is, was, and will remain the Republican Party of the open door, freedom, opportunity and equality and our platform remains, i believe our platform will remain much the same as it is right now and so, and we will remain continuously. So im not, i dont buy into that. So sean spicer who is here is chief strategist of the rnc tweeted this was 100 not true, 100 false. Front page story in the morning times said some Staff Members were told at rnc if they were told if they were unable to get behind the nominee they should leave by the end of week. Sean asked for correction. What have you told your staff . Nothing. I mean i talked to, ive been gone, i talked to katy, our chief of staff. I think what sean, this is what i know, what sean says every other year to the staff in the comes department, is look, were entering the general election phase. Weekends are work days. If you have any family vacations, if youre, if you have something coming up that you need to tell us about, now is the time to do it but that is 100 false as far as you know, telling people they need to leave if theyre not 100 on board. Look, that is not the test. The test is, are you doing a good job . Are you great at what youre doing . If youre great at what youre doing there is no problem. Is there anyone who is left because they cant work to not that i know of. And, do you expect anyone to . I doubt it. I dont think so, mike but it has been 48 hours. Donald trump repeatedly said as you mentioned earlier that the gop nominating process is rigged. I guess it worked out pretty well for him. Yeah. I dont think he thinks that anymore. But does there need to be change. You said i dont think he thinks that anymore. Have you needled him about that . A little bit. What did he say . He laughed. As we look ahead do there need to be changes to the gop nominating process . Listen, i think there are some things that can be looked at but it is not that easy. You know, we tend to respect states and their rights to conduct a distribution and delegate process as they wish. I have my preferences, but it really doesnt matter. What matters is that the states themselves adopt their own delegate rules. The rules committee at the convention will look at all of this and make recommendations as to how to be better. Always want to be better. And changes we made to the rules over the twoyear period we had opportunity at rnc were, at the time, as you know, because you reported, they were historic changes. I mean the idea of making states that have caucuses or beauty contests tie their allocation to those contests, that was a big change. You saw the ames straw polls no more. Why . Because candidates were going to ames, spending tons of money getting nothing out of it so they had to go. We said if youre doing these things tie delegates to it. Debate process. Everyone has a lost suggestions. I agree, there are things we need to do to improve the debate process. People thought we were insane well not have 23 debates. Obviously we didnt know we would have 17 candidates. We had 12. Well not have a calendar no one can count on where one week goes by and then you have abc debate and then 10 days later in myrtle beach. No one knows what is going on. Well have a set calendar. Well have some say who the moderators are. Were not going to have Chris Matthews conducting the Republican Party debate. So people, oh, you guys are never getting this done. Remember there was, he is good at his job but David Plouffe tweeted out this is a folly. It was a big joke. It turned out all of sudden we became in charge of the process. Now what is going to happen, four, eight years from now, were going, the party will have even more control. I actually like to see one day, if it is possible, i know there are fec problems, but for the party to actually own the rights of the nomination process. One day thats going to happen. Both parties will own the rights and they will, they will have Media Outlets will get, just like nfl does. So, you would have exclusive partner. I dont know. I just think that what we did was historic and i think that were going to get to a point where were going to move even into a place that it was would be more control over the process. So you said it is like nfl. So you would charge for access to the nominating process . I think thats where at some point no, just in debates. The point is, should Media Outlets be making tens of millions of dollars on a product that the party should own . Thats the question. And i think both parties should get together and figure out how what the answer to that question is. To charge for rights to the debate . Youre saying that. Im just saying were at the beginning of a long process that i think the parties should explore and i use the nfl as an example because the nomination process i think should go to the benefit of both parties, not the benefit of the media. What about charging for rights to the convention . Well, i mean we kind of do that now. I mean when Media Outlets have to buildout a box, obviously there is a fee that has to be paid. We cant bear the cost of, of the actual structures but no, i think there are certain things obviously that might be handsoff. All im saying is i believe that this is the beginning of a process of exploration that both parties should do. My colleague, kyle cheney, emails me, reince is fan of closed gop primaries only registered republicans can vote. Would you encourage Convention Delegates approving a rule change requiring closed primaries in 2020 . I believe letting delegates do what they want to do but i believe only republicans should vote in republican primaries and contests. So you would i believe in closed primaries and contests, yes, that is the answer. So you would favor that change. Nothing controversial bit. I favor whatever needs to be done to that make that reality. In december 2012 you commissioned the growth an opportunity project which was called honest review of the 2012 election cycle. It has been called the autopsy. What is the biggest you call it. But that is all right. No you called it that . No i called it growth and opportunity report. I might slip up once in while. We all do. What is the biggest recommendation of that report that has been achieved . Data piece and targeting piece. It is the piece it is hard to see because its, you know it is in the weeds but getting data, buying consumer data, census data, melding it over to voter file. And then putting in an application that is easy for field staff to use. Central location. Has been the biggest change at the rnc when you put almost 100 million without the white house, net cash, over four years into this system, it is a really hard thing to do. And weve been doing it. I mean we have been out raising the dnc and outworking the dnc for four years straight. It is undeniable. I dont think anyone writes stories that dnc is doing better, that isnt the case. That has been the other big change is, sound very basic but it is actually important, is that were a yearround party now. We used to be a party that would accumulate cash in a bucket, so you would have 50 million cash on hand. And then nominee an would walk in may or june. Here is the money, now lets go spend it all. So when some people write articles, cash on hand, is not as high as four years ago, one of your guys did that other day. The problem instead one fulltime employee in ohio, i think were at like 29, working up to 48. Trying to get down to 100. We have the Republican Leadership initiative with thousands of people involved. We have engagement in black and hispanic communities. Were spending a ton of money too. And thats the difference, deciding that were not going to be a party that shows up three months before november. It is not, it is a tough Business Model too because you have to keep raising revenues. They keep going up and up and up. It doesnt matter if the environment around you gives people concern. You have to keep doing it. 1,000 of the infrastructure is better all House Republican leaders, all Republican Leaders of all sort give you credit for that for bringing the party back from the steele years with relentless fundraising but still, nowhere near a match for infrastructure of the clintons and old obama i dont know about that. So far that has not been the case. We outraised democrats every year for last four years. I think maybe even the last six years. I dont want to get too far. Clearly you have a stat apparatus that Hillary Clinton has . Were ahead of them. Were ahead right now. You see the difference is, rnc we build our infrastructure on yearround basis around the rnc. Targeted congressional, senate, president ial candidates tap into that operation. What the democrats do, they actually build their operation around the nominee, around the candidate. So it was barack obama that built 100 milliondollar data system in chicago. It was barack obama that never let the field staff off the ground in ohio around florida. But what Hillary Clinton has now going is something that she never expected. She didnt want to spend millions of dollars in new york and millions of dollars in indiana and now millions of dollars in california. So instead of worrying about border reg strays in florida, theyre worrying about how in the world are we going to put this thing away. Welcome our cspan viewers. Thanks cspan for carrying us live. Welcome our live stream viewers. On page 4 of the growth an opportunity project, it says many minorities wrongly think the republicans do not like them or want them in the country. What now . Well, thats a part of being in the community. And i think people can write all the books in the world they want about how to communicate but if youre not in the community, people arent going to learn about your party. How do you square that perception with what donald trump has been saying . Okay. So there is two parts of this. One on hand with the mechanics. If you irnot there mechanically in the community with people from the Community Talking about the party, talk about school choice, talk about sba loans for business owners, if someone is not there, nothing is going to change. You also need to have the tone at the top be the kind of tone that people believe obviously you like them. If people dont think you like them they will not vote for you. Mechanic hispanics think donald trump likes them . Number one, i think there is work to do. I think there is work on tone to do. Ive been clear about that i have said that many times. This is not like breaking news. I said that recently. Have you said that to him . I have. And he understands it. So that is what im saying. Not like im telling you one thing and you dont could this be possible . It is very possible. Because i think he gets it. I think youre going to see it. I think youre going to see the change in tone. And so, you add in to that the fact that were in hispanic and black communities every day and you saw that, you saw the numbers in 2014. Granted that is midterm but cory gardner got 46 of the hispanic vote it colorado. We spent, 7, 8 million on the ground in colorado. John kasich got 28 of the black vote in ohio. If romney had got 10 he would have won ohio. Were talking about longterm commitment to hispanic, black communities, asian community, every community in between and a fulltime yearround party, that understands that it is important for us to do that work. You saw yesterday that donald trump tweeted a picture of himself digging into a tortilla bowl, a big dollop sour cream i didnt see it. I heard about it so. You can imagine i had other things to deal with yesterday afternoon. Tweet says, happy cinco de mayo. Best taco bowls are made in trump tower grill. I love hispanics. Hes trying. [laughter]. Honestly, he is trying. And, ill tell you what. I honestly think he understands that building and unnying and growing the party is the only way were going to win. I think he gets that. What did you think when they told but the tweet . I said, i honestly i had other pressing matters that i was dealing with that were far more important than that tweet. What are your plans for the convention . Well, i mean it makes things a little bit simpler. We dont have to worry about three separate headquarters hotels and, you know, programing is going to be something well be working through. A lot of things are already done. The stage is done. There are things have to happen. We moved convention up seven weeks to july. Certainly when we were talking about an open convention seemed like i was genius for doing that. Now we have to get cruising and get going. Do you feel like a genius . No. I dont. But i think weve done a great job at the rnc. I think when it comes to Competent National party, i dont think anyone in this room can say that this National Committee isnt the best mechanicallyrounded, Competent Committee that we ever had. What do you like about cleveland the city, what do you like about the setting for this convention . Im from wisconsin. Milwaukee to me is like big metropolis. Cleveland is a lot like milwaukee. I love the lake. I think the people there are incredibly grateful. I think having convention will pay off big dividends winning ohio. I think people there, even if theyre independent and democrats, i think they understand what weve done for the city of cleveland by going to cleveland and putting them in the spotlight. I think it is going to pay off and were excited about it. Who controls the Program Lineup in cleveland, you or donald trump . A little of both. It is Republican National commit convention, so the Republican Partys convention but i think obviously out of deference you Work Together in order to put a program together we think is going to be effective. In interview with Washington Post last month donald trump said it is very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep. Do you think the convention should have more of a showbiz feel . Listen, i like the idea of having a more fun convention, if it is showbiz, if it is entertainment, whatever the case may be. I like that idea but with every suggestion comes millions of dollars in money but suggestions are great but there has to be, you know, a pretty big influx of cash to do Something Like that. So donald trump said in the same interview that the Tampa Convention four years ago was the single most Boring Convention ive ever seen. Well, i dont agree with that but is he going to put up money to change that . Well have to talk about it but we havent really talked about that issue yet. And he says we dont have the people who know how to put showbiz into a convention. What sorts of new people are you reaching out to program this convention . Again mike, i havent really gone there yet. It has only been a few days but you know i had dinner with our ceo of the Convention Last night and theyre doing a great job and they have got good people that are in charge. How worried are you about money for the convention . Oh, were good with the money on the convention. I mean it is the dnc that has got the problems. If you look at, you twice all realize that the checkoff money has ended. So there is a portion of the funding that the rnc kicks in anywhere from 14 to 17 million. Think were 80 raised. I think dnc is about maybe 10 raised. You know what these people have in common . Both president s jeb bush, senator john mccain, bruce rauner, senator mark kirk of illinois, senator richard byrd of north carolina, they all say theyre not coming to the convention. Senator kelly ayote in tough race in New Hampshire said it is unlikely. Do you worry about some key leaders sitting it out . No. Many of these people didnt come to the last two conventions and so, i think you have to kind of look at it that way. If theyre in cycle, most of the time theyre not coming to convention. Off the top of my head you asking that, i dont think Claire Mccaskill went to convention four years ago, did she . I dont know if anyone made a big deal about it. It happens. People have make their own choices. As you know this is bigger issue. Cnn diedra walsh reported quietly officials in the highest rung of republican pub leadership are advising rankandfile members to stay away from cleveland. One top leader told them to hold rallies and town halls during the time. July convention a seniorsenate gop aide echoed that consensus. Do you fear among your leaders that cleveland will be perhaps toxic. Not really. I know theyre all clamoring for hotels an suites and tickets. Need 100 more rooms. 100 more rooms. I know what theyre asking for. I know, i know, if we only had another 1,000 rooms for a lot of the different groups that are representing elected officials we would be in good shape. Cnn reports that bob dole is coming. Great. Democrats are licking their chops president possibility of blowout. One republican said to me, donald trump is either going to win 48 states or lose 44 states. Do you sometimes feel that way . You know, i dont. I think this is going to be really close election. I think people are divideed. Youve seen last couple elections are close even though the Electoral College looks different. I think it will be tight. Well do everything we can to make sure we win. What do you think the percentage chance, excuse me what is the percentage chance that donald trump will beat Hillary Clinton . Oh, common, i dont know. I dont put percent an on it but i think he will win and i think that youve got to look at Hillary Clinton and i think she has a lot to answer for and i think if there is one person that knows how to bring all of that out in a way that people can understand its donald trump. New york times and he is going to do it too. He is going going to bring it all out. And it is not, and unfortunately for Hillary Clinton it is not going to be very comfortable because she has a lot to answer for. New york times up shot says if current polling holds, New York Times up shot says can i add one thing to that . Because sometimes in our party we get criticized because we dont hit hard enough, you know, we have didnt talk about bill ayres. We didnt talk about some things that happened in Barack Obamas life during 2008. I dont think that donald trump is going to have a hard time bringing out some of the things that, that are going to be not good for Hillary Clinton. What is your specific scenario where donald trump wins your home state, wisconsin . Well, you know wisconsin can be a populist place. I think you look in sean duffys district in the 7th up north and maybe in the 6th along the river in the 3rd congressional district, i think, i think donald trump does pretty well. And i think Hillary Clinton is someone that, i know, people in wisconsin just dont buy. You know bill clinton was [no audio. Unfortunately we lost our signal this conversation with Reince Priebus, Republican Party gop leader. And we, were still recording that. We plan to bring that to you later here on the cspan networks. Were going to move on, let you know later on cspan2, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee will discuss how isis uses the internet and social media and to recruit supporters. What is being done to combat isis online. That is starting noon eastern. U. S. Senate is in recess this week. Booktv is in prime time on cspan2. Tonight the san antonio, los angeles and virginia book festivals. Also the 400th anniversary of the death of william shakespeare. Booktv prime time tonight on cspan2, starting 8 00 eastern. Then at 7 30 p. M. Eastern, pulitzer prizewinning scholar and annette gordonreed talk about the intellectual mat tour requirings of Thomas Jefferson from earlier influences to political ideologies and in the book, most blessed of the patriarchs. On sunday night at 9 00, after words with Washington Post reporter peter marks, author, good for the money. My fight to pay back nerc america. He talks about the former aig ceo benmosche revived the company after the 2008 financial crisis and how the Company Became profitable again. He was the only person who thought this was possible essentially. I mean the government didnt think this was going to happen. The company certainly didnt think it was going to happen. They were ready to sell it off for spare parts. Certainly the American People had no expectation this was going to happen. So that idea he was a little crazy, you had to be a little crazy to take this on. He was the right kind of crazy. Go to booktv. Org for the complete weekend schedule. Up next here on cspan2 conversation on genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Well hear from scientists working on glowing plants, hornless cows and 3d bio printers. They discuss the ethics altering human embryos and genealtering technology