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>> the chair of the national committee took questions from reporters on the 2022 and 2024 election cycles at an event hosted by the christian science monitor. she was asked about the role of former president donald trump within the gop and upcoming elections, as well as the party 's strategy to bring back which arteries in the house and senate. this is just under an hour. an [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> all right. good morning, everybody. i'm linda feldmann washington bureau chief of the christian science monitor. our guest today is ronna mcdonnell chairwoman of the republican national committee. and the first one wasn't too bad. welcome back. now a little background, ms. mcdonald grew up in michigan and the granddaughter of that state's former governor george romney and niece of mitt romney and i have to say this george romney, was our third ever guest at monitor back in 1967 when this was known as the spurling breakfast and two romney women deeply involved in politics and ran for offense themselves. ms. mcdaniel's mother, ronna

romney and grandmother lenore romney. and 2017 ms. mcdaniel was the michigan republican chair and took donald trump's notice helping him win and brought her to the chair of the rnc. ground rules we're on the record, please no blogging or tweeting while it's underway and we'll e-mail pictures to the reporters as we wrap up. as many of you, if you'd like to ask me a question, send me a signal and i'll call on as many of you as time permits. now i have to turn this thing on, got my recorders, ms. mcdaniel if you'd like to make some brief--

we've got a lot of questions if you want to make a few comments, the floor is yours. >> i only have 30 minutes of remarks. [laughter] >> i'm excited to be here, thank you, linda, thank you, john, a friend i've known for a long, long time. it's good to see all of you and i look forward to a great political discussion as we head to critical mid terms. something i'm seeing that many of you saw two weeks ago in the elections is the republicans had a really great night. every run on common sense issue and education is a key issue, something that's important to me. i've been talking about this for year and a half, my kids were in public school and a junior in high school that lost his freshman and sophomore year and stress of now i have to go to college and i didn't get what i need out of my public schools and my state failed me and my politician failed me.

i was not surprised to see what happened in virginia on top of inflation, on top of gas prices. the american people are in a very concerned state right now and as the republican party it's common sense issues that they're dealing with every day that is resonating and you're seeing that in your polling. abc had a polling with republicans up 10 on the generic ballot and quinnipiac with republicans up eight. these are the types of numbers that we're seeing that lead us to believe we will have a strong midterm. and i look forward-- i don't look forward to taking your questions, but i will do that. [laughter] >> all right, i'll start with a few questions and then move to reporters around the room and i have a little list of people. >> great. >> so i have to ask you, do you still consider liz cheney a republican? >> you know, the wyoming g.o.p. took their actions, obviously, she's still a republican, she's a republican in the conference, but i get from a state party

standpoint when you have a congress person or a senator who is not supporting your state party not talking about electing republicans up and down the ballot, you know, the thing about that that everybody should be taking notice the state party is the most grass roots body that the state has, these are people running in their district committee and they're going to their county committee and represent where they're representing the state. and the voters make a choice in wyoming. >> in your mind she's part of the team. >> still an r next to her name. i wish she was talking about electing r's more, but-- >> tell us about, so your relationship with donald trump is quite well-known he selected you to stand for election and won reelection every time or keep going? >> that's a loaded question. we don't know, this is my third

term and we'll look at midterm. if we win it will make it easier to consider running again. >> and then, so, obviously as of now, the atmosphere, the ground is quite fertile for a big win in the midterms next year. >> yes. so, what keeps you up at night? what could go wrong? what are you anticipating to make sure that you do get the good outcome that you're looking for. >> for me it's the nuts and bolts of the rnc. i think about our ground game, are we registering enough voters and what are we doing to build offices? we're the nuts and bolts in florida first time ever republicans just surpassed democrats in voter registration, that doesn't just happens, that's the boring stuff that the rnc does. north carolina we're making big gains, pennsylvania. i'm looking at our field offices that we're opening, money keeps me up at night. am i raising enough money to put the plan together in the midterms.

those are the things i'm thinking how we're going to win in the election. i had a sleepiness night before west virginia, we had youngkin and election day, a million votes in the bank and we had to win by 55%. you don't sleep well on a night like that and everything panned out the way our data said and that made me feel good about the data and good to the midterms. >> from huffington posts. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> so let's start out with this, does the party the rnc in your mind have a responsibility to make sure that your next nominee is someone who is not going to try to overthrow the republic or-- >> you know, i think the voters are going to determine who the nominee of our party is, and the voters are very frustrated by what they've seen in the past four years and i don't think they're given enough credibility or voice in what we

saw. donald trump came into office with the #not my president. he came into the office with nancy pelosi saying that the election had been hijacked. he game into office now we know with a mueller investigation with a dossier paid for by the dnc and hillary clinton. and i don't know how they would have reacted if the rnc went through intelligence and caused a taxpayer funded investigation for three years and then we go into an election year where big tax for press conservative voices, that's known. and mark zuckerberg registering democrats with 400 million under the guise that's supposed to be bipartisan, it won't. and then you have stories that were critical through the election like the hunter biden laptop suppressed and media being suppressed and laws being changed in the name of covid. republican voters are frustrated right now. and they are aright to be frustrated and by silencing

that and pretending you're all wrong, we're continuing a pattern of not listening to real concerns and that's something that i hear every day. >> a follow-up, in -- that day the next morning called into your meeting and you all gave them a round of applause and you were in tears, remember. >> you weren't in the meeting. >> i wasn't in the meeting. >> no, you don't know anything what i was-- >> is that not true. >> that's absolutely not true. let's just talk about that day. the rnc was in amelia island on you know how our day started? with a bomb threat at the republican national committee. my day started evacuating the building. dnc had a similar threat. and i don't see you thinking about that never found that person. think about that knowing a live bomb was outside of our building and we were hearing about multiple things happening outside of our building, yes, it was emotional.

we didn't understand the gravity of january 6th, because we were in our rnc meeting, one had a broken ankle and maybe they were tears of pain by surgery. but we all condemn what happened on january 6th. we don't want to see that happen again. that's for the courts and criminally that needs to take place. he think what's happening with this commission is so partisan, the fact that the minority party is not allowed to appoint its members. how is this good for the country? how are you not allowed to have republican and democrat voices? why aren't we talking about the lack of security there that day? why are we not talking why was the capitol completely shut down when a bomb was found at the dnc? those are questions i had? and nice to have some republicans on the committee appointed by the minority leader. that in and of itself i think is disqualifying. >> john from news max. >> thank you, linda, and thank

you. two brief questions, first, do you agree with governoriesty that the republican party has to move beyond donald trump? >> you know, i think every republican right now should be talking about 2022, and that's where i am as the republican party chair, i'm not talking about anything else other than what biden is doing to destroy our country, high gas prices, open border, opioid crisis, 100,000 people that died last year and correlates with the massive opioids over our border. that's what i'm talking about as republican chair. >> and governor christie shouldn't be talking-- >> i'll talk about what i want to talk. if you're going to put in headlines republican versus republican, we're taking away from what the democrats are doing, the democrats have the

white house, senate and the house and that's where i'm going to be, everybody else is doing their own thing, but i think we should be talking about joe biden. >> the republican national committee historically backed couple -- incumbents in most circumstance, former speaker gingrich says that governor kep should be replaced by former senator purdue, he would be a unifier? >> our bylaws prevent us getting involved in primaries at republican national committees. we have a mechanism to endorse an incumbent or candidates rule 11 it's really in the weeds and we are actually prohibited from getting involved in a primary unless that's signed by three committee members in that. >> you're neutral? >> we're neutral in every race, we get to focus on the general, i'm not interested in the republican versus republican, i'm focused on beating the

democrats. that's what our voters want us to be focused on. my money is not spent on republican versus republican. it's how am i going to defeat the democrat, win back the senate one seat, win back the house one seat and that's what we need. >> melissa burke from the detroit news. hi, how are you. >> good. >> and i have a question-- i'm going to ask first about the michigan redistricting commission, there has been controversy over the maps every not meeting deadlines. are you guys going to -- are you guys going to get involved. >> nrcc is taking the lead on the redistricting. i will say i really take issue with the michigan redistricting commission because the balloting initiative said it had to be equal by party. michigan is not a register by

party state who are you determining who are the republicans versus the democrats and based on vetting, purported to be independent they aren't. we sued we did lose on that. i don't like these commissions. i don't think they're bipartisan. >> [inaudible] what's line five? >> it's enbridge line. i don't know it's still enbridge line five. mackinac brings oil from canada into michigan. >> and the since the governor-- and [inaudible] you have prime minister trudeau at the white house today and curious where you are. >> if this energy crisis didn't just happen, when you shut down the keystone pipeline, when you are shutting down our exports and then promoting russia and then saying you're going to

shut down line five, it's a cold michigan winter, especially in the u.p., and we don't want to pay more for our heating prices. we're already paying more for everything in our state right now and i'll say this, i don't know if you know this, it's much different in michigan than the rest of the country. i don't know if you're going to the middle. country and dealing with what's happening with grocery stores and labor shortages, but i was in new york this week, it's fine. you can go to a restaurant, you can eat. i tried to go to lunch with my mom last week, hadn't seen her for a year during the pandemic. we went to five different restaurants in the middle of the day just trying to go to lunch. every one said hour and a half wait. signs up labor shortage issues, no servers, it's decimating our state and i don't know if the rest of the country and the bubble, the d.c. bubble really understands what middle america is dealing with right now, it's bad. >> rick cline from abc news. >> hey, rick. >> thanks for having this. >> my colleague a book out this

week, a conversation between you and president trump where the outgoing president said he plan to leave the party and with you and some of your aides trying to talk him out of it. you put out a statement and called it false and he said fake news. >> president trump clearly has never left the party and i'm not about to share my conversations with the president and i won't do now and one thing true in the statement. if he left the party we would lose. if he left the party republicans would lose. he has built our party and added a new base, we've become a working class party, asaw it in my home state of michigan, look at macomb county. he vocally put out that i'm not leaving it and out in the field helping to elect, and he did

that in the youngkin. >> you said that it's false and the president said fake news. >> i am commented on it. >> it's false the three words of the statement. >> read the statement-- >> i've said what i'm going to say which is the president stayed in the party. this is a nonissue and we're going to continue to have him in the party. >> did he ever tell you he would leave, i've already said i'm not talking about my conversations with the president of the united states. >> and jeff early, daily mail. >> a lot of reporting the last few weeks and months about trump refusing privately and publicly, not to certify votes from states. so what does it mean for the party if-- the top of the ticket the debate coverage and stories that we write.

what does it mean for the nomination battle or down ticket if the driving whether pence-- >> you're talking a years ahead. we're talking 2022. i appreciate your question, i do and for fodder for everyone what's going to happen in 2024. i don't think that 2024 is even on the radar yet until we get through 2022. democrats have tried to federalize the elections four times this past year and made it very clear if they take back majorities they want to get rid of the filibuster and stack the supreme court. i don't think any republican can be looking at 2024 as even an option if we don't win in 2022. that will play itself out i want everybody to be focused on 2022 in our party and please help us win back the house and senate. >> and did pence have the authority and should he have not accepted-- >> i'm not a constitutional scholar, i think a lot of issues that happened in the

election and we could talk about that, but that would be for the constitutionalists to discuss. i'm not going to talk about that. >> so christa monitor. >> thank you for being with us this morning. wondering if you looked at the recent election results and voter registration trends, where do you see are the promising areas to make inroads in your efforts to recruit more minorities and women for both candidates and voters? >> well, certainly we're seeing a shift in hispanic vote, right? the rnc is invested in outreach in community centers in the hispanic, asian, and african-american communities and we're seeing growth in all of them, but i think you've got to look at john, two weeks ago in san antonio, a district that biden won by 14 points and he flipped it. mccallen race, a hispanic area, and biden won the county in

2020 and we just flipped that for a republican. we're seeing huge growth not just with venezuelan and cuben latinos, and also mexican hispanics and colombian, puerto rican, the growth we're seeing is resonating part of it is our investments, but they are a small business owners and they're school of choice, and with the black and asian community as well. >> i want to follow up on something you said in your opening remarks, laws being changed in the name of covid. i've been curious why the republican criticism about the election focused so much on fraud rather than looking at all the different ways in which many states rapidly changed their election laws in order to enable mail-in voting on a much more timeline than--

>> that's what i talked about a lot. you saw a different standard applied to in-person voting than mail-in voting. you saw courts removing that i.d. requirement. when you get an absentee ballot for the first time i've had to do that hopefully you have, you have to show your i.d. to verify who you are. and they said we don't with covid and allowed influx of absentee ballots that weren't verified. and that's done in the name of covid. and texas 24 hour voting is not allowed and that's prohibitive. they can do votes on ballots, and election day and that's a ridiculous premise, that was something for covid. governor brought in emergency powers like whitmer and wolf and states like nevada went into legislative session and called special session toss

change their election laws 60, 90 days out from the election downgrading signature match. those are things we're focusing on. that's why laws are being changed at the state level. >> a level of republican strategy and i realize rnc is one player in a bigger picture. why are these things not the top line, why is it stop the steal. >> it's my top line and we've won 58 lawsuits and everything we've talked about is degradation of a lot of common sense to the election because of covid. we need to restore our elections back to pre-pandemic protections. there were things that were done in the pandemic that democrats want could codify and we want restoration and actual safe fwardz -- self-guards to make it less

easier to cheat and-- >> i want to know how you strike a balance. you he thinks-- you mentioned that if donald trump left that you would lose, but a lot of your voters are focused on issues and we saw in virginia, the rules voters maybe more inclined to follow donald trump in that side of the republican party, but at the same time youngkin winning back a lot of the suburbs that joe biden had won. so, how do you balance this big tent because you have a big tent, too, in the republican party going into the 2022 elections? >> you talk about the voters. not bringing people in and who is here and who is on the trail as a candidate today. it's what do the voters care about? the youngkin win was getting rid of the grocery tax and let

the parents have a say what their kids are learning or being taught in school. making sure we're battling inflation, kitchen table common sense issues that won and just taking that to every voter in the best mechanism possible, but for me that's the key. if we're talking about issues that people are seeing, we're going to win. if we're talking about the democrats play book which they did in virginia, january 6th every day, that's what they're going to talk about, the d triple c's that's what we'll make it about, that didn't work in virginia. and voters are really really worried right now and there's angst in the country and republicans addressed that and found solutions. we didn't just win in virginia, we won in pennsylvania bucks county outside of philly and suburbs of pittsburgh for a

supreme court race in pennsylvania. we won in new jersey, maine, a mayor's seat and in texas the wins across the board, blue states, red states, why? because we're resonating with the american people because we're talking about the voters. >> are you worried that in some areas or with some candidates they're going to-- because they're not all youngkin not all going to talk about school. a lot of them are going to talk about the elections, the fraud, the voting. are you worried that that messaging-- >> i think the message has been customized to the state and down to the voter. the rnc does that customizing it to the voter and every door knock a different message, but you've got to do what works in your community and talk about issues that resonate. i don't think in florida what happened in the schools are going to be issue because ron

desantis kept the schools open. my brother's daughters got to go to homecoming and had a normal life and my kids didn't. they're not behind in geometry or algebra. my kids are. and they're different from a red state run by a republican governor. >> from the german newspaper. >> thank you. interested in your answer to the question how important it is for the upcoming election and my other question is you say you don't really want to talk about 2024 and donald trump that much, but he tours the country and many of them tell us that it's not the republican party anymore it's the trump party, what do you say to them? >> i think there are certainly voters that came to the republican party because of donald trump, but they also turned out for republican candidates last week. and he's a big key to that so it's a whole party and they recognize that they want to tackle energy independence.

they don't want an open border, they want freedom to have voice in kids school without being called domestic terrorists. if you look at the issues, it's the republican party that trump is a big factor in that and he's going to be critical to us winning in the midterm. >> and isn't called the republican party, it's not the party that we knew. >> whatever anybody says as long as they aren't the democrats, we want you, where our country is we need to win the midterms. >> the female vote how important? >> in virginia, i think that fairfax loudon, that's not where we'll see as much movement. but if you look at richmond, the areas where we won in the suburbs, and we're winning back female voters on issues that

every voter cares about. i like treating women like a whole voter, we're not single issue voters women care about the schools and grocery stores, gas tax or gas inflation and that's why we're winning the voters back and we saw it in virginia and new jersey. >> to my left from the monitor. >> so this is a quick follow-up on what crystal was asking about. you know, i think that the virginia governor's race just fell a longstanding assumption that when voters come out a tie, democratic candidates win. voter turnout was high and governor youngkin won. i'm curious, you and other prominent republicans have voiced strong opposition to measures that increase voter access such as absentee ballots so i'm curious looking forward to 2022, is it, why do you still have that opposition given that virginia has proven what happens when a lot of

republicans vote. >> we're not against anything that makes more people vote. we're for putting safeguards in, it's making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. i think it's crazy almost that most people think that voter i.d. shouldn't be shown for everybody to vote. the majority of voters, democrat and republican, think you should show an i.d. to vote. right now if you're in new york, you have to show a vaccine card to go anywhere, but we don't have to show our i.d. to vote? so why are we pushing against this? republicans are very, very in favor of that. and many of the laws are expanded hours and to the polls there's nothing prohibiting voting. i'm against what the democrats say we want to vote three weeks in advance and to count the votes and count two weeks after. >> and some states counted up to 14 days after the election,

that's a huge delta. that destroys and erodes confidence in the process. so have the early voting, have the absentee votings have security measures, and ballot harvesting that they can with the chain of custody-- most are pushing vaccine cards for any movement in our lives and yet, opposing an i.d. to vote. >> okay. next to aaron, tell me your name again. >> bridgette bowman. >> hey, bridgette. >> [inaudible] on the infrastructure package and-- they need to remind voters that democrats passed them, that could help them. >> poll numbers aren't good right now. biden quinnipiac has 36% today.

>> policies and the-- >> i think that they correlate. they've seen a president that walked away from afghanistan in a horrific way, they've seen a president who has turned his back on the border, what he's gone to delaware 25 times and hasn't gone to the border once. we don't know if he's done it in his whole life. we've seen a president making light of the hardship american families are feeling. we now have seen an administration that worked with the department of justice to put a memo out calling parents domestic terrorists. i mean, this is of their own making. the build back broke plan which is what we call it, the biggest part of that, second largest part that have is a huge tax cut for the wealthiest americans, with the salt deduction, that's a huge, huge part and that's because where are the members from? california and new york, it's hard for them to go and sell to the american people dealing with a tax increase right now

with inflation rates being as high as they are, that's a tax on every american and going in and saying pass this reconciliation package that's going to give the wealthiest americans a giant tax cut. >> so let me throw in one. in the past two years since your last breakfast with us our politics have seen an uptick in violent acts, and messages. so you know your friend fred upton in michigan he faced death threats for voting for the infrastructure bill, then there was the censure of paul gosar over the video he posted. how can we back away from this? >> and maxine water, if you see them form a crowd and get in their face and many incidence of democrats saying things like that and didn't get censured for this. and a bomb in front of the rnc. >> how do we as a society. how does your politics pull away from it.

>> i think that social media is a big part of it. i don't know the answer, i wish i did. it's hard to be on social media for anybody, anybody who looks at comments it probably nicer to the democrats on twitter than the republicans. it's nasty, i've had death threats we've had to have security i don't always public size that we've all had had moments in this public sphere. >> when did you get the death threat and what was it about? >> i've had-- turned it over to the fbi, i'm not going to share it, but it was a pretty graphic image sent to my home address. >> in the mail, in the physical mail. >> i think the person was unwell because he put his address on it. [laughter] >> , but you know, you get that and that's just the way-- and that was a while ago, but, now, everybody is-- i don't know. i wish everybody would tamp it down. i don't think we have as much of a civilized dialog anymore,

i don't think we share viewpoints on tv enough. i think a lot of the media is subscription based now so you write for your viewer or your subscriber, it's less news, it's i have-- not you guys, but a lot of them are. but if you turn on cnn, i don't know if there are cnn, sorry, gabby. you don't see a republican viewpoint now and that's the same on other things and people are feeling angry they're not seeing their views expressed. >> sorry, when was the death threat. can you tell us the year? >> it was pretty on when i started. >> before january 6th? >> oh, yeah. >> todd gillman from dallas morning news. >> a quick question. i've been googling unsuccessfully, do you believe that joe biden won the election. >> painfully, joe biden won the election, he's the president of course, it's very painful to watch. i think there were lots of problems with the election and i think it needs to be looked

at, but yeah, he's the president. >> that he is the president, you know-- >> your question. >> but you do believe that he won the election. >> i just told you's the president and it's very painful. i think the media gave him a free pass. and i think there's a lot uncovered. >> like what? >> the fact that the hunter biden laptop came out and that you guys didn't talk about it, and the fact that he sat in the basement and didn't get his basement and tara reid never had to-- >> those are separate whether more votes and more electoral college votes. >> he's the president we know that, 0 being okay? he's doing a terrible job. >> and you said that donald trump is critical to the republican winning the midterms and pointed to virginia as a

success story for the republicans, clearly it was. >> one thing that happened in virginia not just once, but youngkin kept trump at arm's length and trump a sentence that not lot of us have ever written showed a lot of discipline in laying low. doesn't that suggest that trump is toxic at least in some context? >> no, this is so d.c. you guys are obsessed with him. honestly, i don't get-- everything is about trump. first of all, made trump in the election, he didn't have to, the press didn't have to mccauliffe made it. and youngkin made it about virginia. >> and mccauliffe made it about

obama, abrams, and-- he said parents didn't have a say in education and ignored what parents were going through in his state and young kin said i'm going to make it about that. and people don't want to see national figures coming in, they want to see candidates talking about their issues directly to the voter. >> totally separate topic. >> really, really quick. >> and the supreme court is going to look at the mississippi abortion case, if the supreme court does strike down or radically rewrite roe vs wade, which side, which party does that energize more? >> you guys can write about that, you're the press. i mean, i'm not going to get into hypothetical what the supreme court is going to do. >> paul from the washington examiner. >> chairwoman, i want to ask

about your relationship with-- on trump youngkin is the value of the president in a race where he's not a physical president, that he kind of signals to his base, which is fairly large, that this guy is good. or this woman is good, and that's what's helpful? >> i think i've said all along trump is going to be critical in turning out voters in the midterms and he's a huge factor in popularity and polls they'll be looking to him. there are going to be other leaders in our party, too, that are going to help. it's going to come down to the candidate with the candidates connecting with the voters on issues important to them. we've got great issues to run on right now. >> you talk about this relationship with log cabin. there's a history they were kind of kept at arm's length. the trump family embraced them and melania won the award kind of unofficial ambassador.

>> there's no partnership or coalition, we went-- we've talked to the log cabin republicans and done things in the past, but we don't do any coalition was any group and can't legally, i think that's a misnomer that's out there. >> so you're not doing anything with them. we've gone to their event. we can't partner, we can't legally do that with any outside group. >> to your left, i'm sorry in the pink sweater. >> hi, gabby. >> you mentioned earlier that the rnc was-- primaries and obviously that would stand for the 2024 financial primary well. back in 2020 when there were potential primary challengers against donald trump you said that they would lose horribly. i'm just curious how the rnc actually plans to balance the neutrality you said the party is obliged to have if trump does run with the loyalty he'll

demand of yourself on others in the apparatus. >> i know you love jumping to 2024, i'm not going there. it's part of our bylaws of the party you have to stay neutral. that's the way the rnc is written and that's part of the role of the party we're not focused on that right now we're focused on 2022. and noi everybody in d.c. and the press, i'm going to tell you the american people aren't talking about 24 right now either. they are thinking about their gas prices empty grocery stores the things that they're dealing with and it doesn't seem like anybody seems to be catching on to how bad it is in middle america and the rest of the country and they're not interested in who is going to run in 2024. >> really? >> i think a lot of trump's base-- >> i never hear that question. >> really? >> no, when i'm out with grass roots or at my grocery story was at the restaurant the other day and the hostess started tearing up how bad the conditions are right now to work in. and they're totally

understaffed they almost had a walkout of 25 on her shift. go to-- this isn't me go talk to anybody right now in retail, in a restaurant, maybe not here in d.c., i don't know what it's like here in d.c., but in my state, it is brutal. and i'm worried, i'm going to see local businesses i've loved closed because they can't find staff and the cost of everything is worse and worse and worse. >> and one more question unrelated to trump. based off the abortion question there's been a lot of debate inside the republican party over how big of a role social issues should play in election messaging. i'm curious after virginia, seeing some of the messaging that glenn youngkin had on parental choice and education, transgender student, critical race theory, what is your take on the roll that social issues play. >> again it's specific to the candidate. what happened in loudon county that took a big role in glenn's

race, what was happening on and the school board suppress add violent crime and didn't share it and that's the law you didn't have to share it if you're a school board member. i think that parents were horrified about that and crt taught in the schools and parents testifying you've got to make it to specific to the state and voters you're reaching out to. >> and i'm sorry, in the glasses, from the financial times. >> hi, in the wake of january 6th, a lot of america's biggest businesses made very clear statements criticizing republican party, saying they were suspending donations, and nearly a year on, how would you characterize the party's relationship with corporate america? >> probably not the best person to ask on that because we are funded primarily by personal donations so we don't take a lot of corporate money anyway, so that would probably be the nrcc and dn adds more with that. >> and thinking about the

party's platform, issues like lower taxes and deregulation, historically corporate america and the party have kind of been in lock step and i think we've seen a division, you know, you've seen corporate american backing the-- >> i don't know it's too early to tell, i think there's been a lot of corporate america that has come back to supporting republicans, many of those who, you guys can probably investigate those who said that after january 6th who have come back already, that's not a big part of our fund raising, so-- >> are you, yeah. >> and talking point? >> hi, so-- some who are presumed front runner right now, sean parnell, hershel walker, and allegations of domestic violence from women in their lives. are you concerned that it hurts the party's brand to have these people running? >> well, obviously, you take domestic violence very

seriously so, you know, if there were, you know, criminal charges or if that got pursued we would look at that very seriously, but it's going to be up to the votesers to decide and they have to make their case and tell their story. >> elena from axios. >> i have a question about how you and the party feel about the [inaudible] 13 house republicans voted for it and the former president's statements rallying against those who voted for it. we saw leadership in the house whipping against it. and this is obviously becoming a huge issue now as a messaging point that's kind of dividing people in the party as well. i'm curious what your thoughts on the bill are and you know, the chaos. >> you know my thoughts are, it just makes me more motivated to get back the house and the senate and when you see the

control that the democrats have especially with reconciliation bill which i don't think will get any republican support, it's very, very motivating. so i'm going to keep my eye on how do we win back the seats. and that's my job as party chair. >> and thing that-- >> for democrats to put forward to reconciliation bill and i think it's terrible to have them in leadership, so that's what i'm going to continue to focus on. >> my question is about the infrastructure bill. >> i'm going to focus on going after the democrats i've said that all along we've got to make sure that we win back the house and senate to control those agendas. >> you don't have any answer on infrastructure. >> to your left, from cbs. >> hey, aaron. >> you mentioned the-- [inaudible] taking the lead looking at the overall, what are your thoughts how are things going? do you feel that republicans have been pressing the

advantage appropriately in north carolina or ohio? >> in 2020 was definitely not a mandate for joe biden. obama and holder worked for four years to flip state legislatures ahead of re districting and they picked up a net of zero. we picked up 135 seats across the country at the state legislative level. and we had big wins two weeks ago in new jersey and virginia. and as a result, you're seeing these maps being drawn on top of the fact that republican governors have done so well that there are the bills in the state where the growth happens. texas, florida, north carolina, although north carolina is not a republican governor, but it did and that's where you're going to see the growth and i think that the maps look good so far and i think they've been done, too. >> and how about fund raising? not every house candidate has funds of a glenn youngkin and that was a narrative for house races. republican challengers were not

able to compete in terms of the fund raising compared to democrat i can incumbents. can rnc help at all with-- >> we're helping with that right now with our voter registration efforts, with the ground game we're building up and offices open across the country and staff in the battle ground states so we're the turnout machine and we're the nuts and bolts, we're the infrastructure. and i said infrastructure. we're the infrastructure and we build the roads so the cars can drive on it, and that is six years in advance, it's not that you just overtake the democrats in florida on voter registration, that will be a huge help and rnc, having that small dollar fund raising vehicle opened up after the 2018 midterms has been key to compete and we will be happening candidates up and down the ballot. >> tell me how often do you talk to donald trump? >> not to talk about-- >> did you see him when you

were at mar-a-lago in person. >> i was at mar alago, how did you know that? >> it was in the paper. >> i'm not going into a corporation. >> you won't give us a sense how he think about 2024. >> and you can talk to him about that. >> and donald trump did put out a statement saying he wanted to see the entire michigan state legislature replaced and going in to endorse challengers to incumbents. can you talk about, do you want to see the incumbents potentially lose their jobs-- >> as i said we have to stay neutral in primaries for a right reason and i use the kelly leffler example.

it's hard to bring them back together in the end and let's make peace and say let's win. that's why we have to stay out of it. it makes sense, and helps bring-- we will have contentious primary we have got competitive fields in ohio, in pennsylvania, in arizona, so at the end we're going to have to bring everybody back together all right let's regroup and beat the democrats. >> and the michigan governor's race. >> and the michigan governor's race, which has three candidates, four candidates in it right now, i think, three. >> a chance to jump into that? >> no chance i'll be jumping into that. zero chance i'll be jumping in the michigan governor's race. >> how about the [inaudible] >> i'm not looking for any republican to be replaced i'm looking for chuck schumer and nancy pelosi to be replaced. >> to your right. >> i know you said you want to focus on democrats, but republican candidates keep

talking about 2020, how much of a republicans talk about the past election and the fraud involved? >> i think we have to talk about the things that people saw, when you have poll watchers say i was turned away and the frustration that i saw and i have friends who said i went to this poll, polling place and i was turned away or it wasn't run well. we have to talk about that because we've got to fix it and assure our voters we're looking at that and taking it seriously. you can walk and chew gum at the same time and focus on 2022. >> and candidacy or-- >> you've got to do both and assure voters to put the process in place that make sure that the election is fair, and i think through covid a lot were put in place and we want the laws put back to the pre-pandemic standards. >> great, so we've got two minutes until 10 if anybody wants to throw in a quick one.

>> darn, i should have fibl fill busters. >> and the political is so polarized and politicized and you as a mom, and you see for children are wearing masks in school. and what do you think of it, the u.s., a developed country, rich country cannot do-- i would ask joe biden that. >> and republican governor-- >> my kids are vaccinated, i'm vaccinated, i had covid. part i move 16-year-old being vaccinated. joe biden said get vaxed no mask and rather that catchy statement. i said to my 16-year-old if you get vaccinated you don't have to wear the mask in school now he's wearing the mask in school and he hates it. and you know, but it's better

than not being in school which is what he was virtual last year, that's better than that. i think every family is struggling right now. i do not think it's political. i think that joe biden failed to take this wonderful vaccine that donald trump gave him and put together and sell it to american people. and now he's created this, if you're not vaxed you're a bad person narrative and pitting americans against each other instead of saying if you're not vaxed can i have a conversation with you about not why and can i get you to talk to your doctor and treat this concern with a valid conversation instead of just demonizing you because if you do that, people respond much better, but right now, it's either you're bad or you're good and that's not fair to people who have legitimate concerns. it's just not fair. >> all right. perfect. it's 10:00, and thank you. >> you made it. >> i did. >> thank you very much for coming and i hope you'll come again. >> thank you. thank you for having me.

i wish there was alcohol in this, i don't drink, but, i'm a mormon i don't drink, but still. [laughter]. >> a little too early. >> [inaudible conversations] >> c-span's washington journal, everyday we take your calls live on the air of the news of the day and discussed policy issues that impact you. monday morning, we talk about the biden administration's economic policy. and then vivian on a new report on digital misinformation and disinformation. and the national congress of american indians president will discuss native american priorities and the recent white

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