RNC chairman: No ‘slice-and-dice festival’ to pick a 2016 candidate

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the RNC will maintain strict control of 2016 GOP presidential primaries and debates.

{mosads}“We’re shrinking the primary calendar from about six months to about 60 days,” Priebus told John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York.

“And then we’re getting control of our debates. It became a 23-debate traveling circus. We’re not going to have any more than nine debates.”

Priebus said he will also help pick debate moderators and partners.

Priebus said the GOP will win the White House in 2016 “as long as we can contain the process,” adding that he will not allow it to become “a slice-and-dice festival,” as it has been in the past.

The RNC chairman also criticized President Obama during the interview, saying the president’s State of the Union address “was like an alternative universe.”

“The president is marching to the beat of his own drum,” he said. ”Why is this president is so bizarrely aloof? … It’s inexplicable … Perhaps he’s had enough.”