Donald Trump is not hurting the image of his party, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday, despite a new poll showing otherwise.
"I think Donald Trump and the Trump name is kind of a national brand name," Priebus said on
"Meet the Press." on Sunday. "I think in Donald Trump's case it is fair to say Donald Trump speaks for Donald Trump."
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The complete
NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll will be released on Monday. "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd noted that it shows that most Americans do think Trump is damaging the GOP's name.
"I think all these candidates speak for themselves," Priebus said, and that once nominees are determined by the Democrats and the Republicans, at that point they will speak for their respective parties.
Priebus also predicted Republicans will know who their nominee is pretty early – March to be specific.
One of the 17 declared candidates – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – isn't as certain, saying last week that that the nominee might not be known until
close to the August convention.
Priebus also was asked whether he had succeeded in having a bigger voice in the debate process. He insisted that he had, saying that the party had wanted to limit the number of debates and keep ultra-liberal moderators from being in charge.
"We're not having a 23-debate circus," like in 2012, he told
"This Week" on ABC. "We cut the debates to about nine."
At the same time, the networks running the debates still have say over what goes over their airwaves, Priebus said, but added he is happy with how Fox News Channel, which hosts Thursday's debate, and CNN have done.
Fox is limiting the top 10 candidates to the prime time slot with the other seven appearing in the afternoon. Priebus said that's a fair thing to do.
"It might be a little harsh," he said, but "you can't necessarily treat someone that's polling at 18 percent or 20 percent the same as someone who's polling at a half a percent or 1 percent."
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